Krugman: America Wants Security (of Social Kind)

[RamboLiberal]

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/05/23/opinion/23krugman.html?hp=&pagewanted=print

It was a carefully staged Norman Rockwell scene. The street was lined with American flags; a high school band played "God Bless America."

Then, under the watchful gaze of Wal-Mart's chief operating officer, Maryland's governor vetoed a bill that would have obliged large businesses to spend more on employee health care.

The news here isn't that some politicians wrap their deference to corporate interests in the flag. The news, instead, is that Maryland's State Legislature passed a pro-worker bill in the first place. In fact, the bill passed by a veto-proof majority in the Maryland Senate, and fell just short of that margin in the House.

After November's election, the victors claimed a mandate to unravel the welfare state. But the national election was about who would best defend us from gay married terrorists. At the state level, where elections were fought on bread-and-butter issues, voters sent a message that they wanted a stronger, not weaker, social safety net.

<snip>

Everyone loves historical analogies. Here's my thought: maybe 2004 was 1928. During the 1920's, the national government followed doctrinaire conservative policies, but reformist policies that presaged the New Deal were already bubbling up in the states, especially in New York.

[murielkane]

1. Maybe DU ought to keep a much closer eye on the states

If the state level is where the real changes are going on -- the experiments in finding 21st century solutions to 21st century problems -- we all need to know about them. But breaking things up into state-by-state forums here at DU means those sorts of stories can get lost.

Anybody got any good ideas about how to bring the important state stories front and center? The ones that aren't just local issues, but are setting new paradigms for all of us?

[Demeter]

2. In My State Of Michigan, the Changes Are Not Promising

Official unemployment is 7%, who knows what the real rate is. Catering to the Red state hunger for SUVs has become profitless lately, and local industry is prostrate. The budget is in $500 million deficit every year thanks to 12 years of GOP profligacy (The portly Governor Engler, who fled to DC after raping the state), which Gov. Granholm cannot resolve because the GOP legislature refuses all reasonable tax increases or budget cuts.