A Confederacy of Lunches - ‘This Town,’ by Mark Leibovich

[Beacool]

By CHRISTOPHER BUCKLEY

Not to ruin it for you, but: if you already hate Washington, you’re going to hate it a whole lot more after reading Mark Leibovich’s takedown of the creatures who infest our nation’s capital and rule our destinies. And in case you are deluded enough as to think they care, you’ll learn that they already hate you. He quotes his former Washington Post colleague Henry ­Allen: ­“Washington feels like a conspiracy we’re all in together, and nobody else in America quite understands, even though they pay for it.”

..........

He adduces four serious — I’m trying to avoid saying “tectonic” — shifts that have taken place over the last 40 years. Combined, they make “This Town” read like the endgame chapters of Gibbon’s “Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire.” In addition to his reporting talents, Leibovich is a writer of excellent zest. At times, this book is laugh-out-loud (as well as weep-out-loud). He is an exuberant writer, even as his reporting leaves one reaching for the Xanax. As for those four big changes:

Lobbying. President Obama’s first year in office was the best year ever for the special interests industry, which earned $3.47 billion lobbying the federal government. Ka-ching — your change, sir. There’s a phrase in journalism-speak called “burying the lede,” which Leibo­vich appears to do by waiting until Page 330 to cite this arresting figure (previously reported by The Atlantic): in 1974, 3 percent of retiring members of Congress became lobbyists. “Now 50 percent of senators and 42 percent of congressmen do.” No one goes home anymore. Cincinnatus, call your office.

...........

The other major change took place pari passu with lobbying: the arrival of big money in Washington. “Over the last dozen years,” Leibovich writes, “corporate America (much of it Wall Street) has tripled the amount of money it has spent on lobbying and public affairs consulting in D.C.” Alongside this money comes the tsunami of dollars from presidential campaigns. He reports that during the 2012 contest, the so-called super PACs and megadonors pumped “upwards of $2 billion . . . into the empty-calorie economy of two men destroying each other.” He refers to a datum courtesy of The Huffington Post, which reported in the spring of 2012 that, so far, “the top 150 consulting companies had . . . grossed more than $465 million” during the campaign.

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/07/28/books/review/this-town-by-mark-leibovich.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0

There, in a nutshell, is the reason why K Street has rebounded and is doing very well, while the rest of the nation is struggling. It sounds like a good book, albeit depressing. I don't think that in the long run it matters much who is at the top of the heap when the people who are the perpetual denizens of DC won't allow that individual to make any substantial changes.

[bemildred]

1. The best government money can buy. nt

[Beacool]

2. It's sickening.

I don't think that too many people are deluded enough to think that any of these politicians that we send to Washington go there because they give a damn about the welfare of the people of the nation. They seek power to satisfy their gigantic egos and to eventually line their pockets thanks to that power they hold. What happened to the idealists of former generations? They seemed to have ceased to exist in today's politics.

[bemildred]

4. And they sell us out so cheap, too. That's what pisses me off. nt

[mick063]

3. We are 1800's France now.

Waiting for the climax.

[Beacool]

5. I wonder if people have it in them to revolt.

In other nations there's a tradition of protesting. I have lived in Latin American and Europe. Any time I go to one of the countries in either continent, there's a demonstration about something somewhere going on, usually it's in relation to the economy. Here we seem to take the abuse like whipped puppies and only occasionally rise up. Why is that so?

[mick063]

6. Has not reached critical mass.

The working class has been utterly destroyed. Now corporations are importing in the professionals. Graduates from the University of Bangladesh. They don't have to be citizens anymore, just carry a work permit. They will be thrilled to receive the low salary with no benefits.

Once the dismantling of the white collar workers is complete, we will reach the threshold. The middle class will become a shadow of it's former self, we will become a two class society like a typical banana republic, and the groundwork will be complete.

Just a matter of time.

[Beacool]

7. Why wait until there's no longer a middle class left?

Won't it then be too late to staunch the bleeding?

[mick063]

8. I define critical mass

as the point where half of America feels there is no other alternative.


This point is not as difficult to reach as one might think. I compare it to the popular shift against the Vietnam War. There reached a point where a majority of people, if not directly affected, knew of a distant relative or close friend that suffered loss from it. In other words, you do not necessarily have to feel the impact directly on your immediate family, but simply witness the effect on people relatively close to you, or people you encounter regularly, to be heavily influenced.

We will reach that point as well as those in uniform reaching a point where brutalizing civilians becomes unacceptable to them (if demonstrations become increasingly violent). Part of the price the "Scott Walker types" will pay for stealing pensions, diminishing benefits, and lowering wages of public servants.

I doubt we reach that violent point. I believe a turnaround will happen based upon an economic calamity due to unchecked capitalism sparking a robust labor movement influencing politics. A calamity that will dwarf 2008. Heads will roll, but it will be through the justice system, and amount to prison sentences as opposed to the "guillotine". Sweeping political reform and possible constitutional amendments. A politician will arise, and because of timing as well as correct ideology, will become historic for his/her leadership for these changes.

Liberalism will make a comeback as it will be our only path out of the impending economic calamity.

[Beacool]

9. Maybe so, we'll see.

I think it mostly has to do with the vast majority of Americans coasting along in their own little worlds and not getting involved. They gripe and groan about things, but can't get their butts off the their recliners to actually do something to change things.