Xenophobia and isolationism are spreading in America. When Democrats jump onto China bashing, they miss the real causes of the recession, and worse, legitimize us-vs.-them thinking.http://www.csmonitor.com/Business/Robert-Reich-s-Blog/2010/1011/Xenophobia-and-the-economyDeep economic crises are fodder for demagogues who channel economic fear into a politics of resentment against “them.” In the 1930s it was foreign traders (mainly Europeans), immigrants, and Jews. Now it’s foreign traders (mainly the Chinese), immigrants, and Muslims. How do you explain the surging animosity toward foreign trade, particularly toward China? Candidates for midterm elections are running tens of millions of dollars of ads attacking their opponents for being too sympathetic to China.
Republicans have a long history of turning fears into resentments that animate voters. (Remember Willy Horton? Senator Joe McCarthy?) For years, Fox News, yell radio, and other outlets of the Republican right have built followings on hatefulness. Yet Democrats are entering the same terrain when they blame China.
If Democrats (or Republicans, for that matter)
want to blame something, blame America’s record level of inequality – an almost unprecedented concentration of income and wealth at the top, and a smaller proportion for the vast middle.The evidence is all around us.
It’s no mere coincidence that 1928 and 2007 marked historical high-water points for shares of national income going to the top 1 percent. Today’s median wage is now 5 percent lower than it was at the start of the decade, taking inflation into account, while top earners are doing better than ever. The core assets of most Americans are their homes, whose values are now 20 to 40 percent below what they were three years ago, while the key assets of America’s wealthy are shares of stocks and bonds, whose values have declined far less. The official rate of unemployment is 4.4 percent for college graduates but 10 percent for those with only high school degrees and almost 15 percent for high school dropouts.
Are the Democrats so dependent on the campaign contributions from the wealthy they dare not speak of this? Or worried about being labeled “class warriors?”
China bashing doesn’t educate the public about what’s truly at stake and what must be done in the years ahead. Worse: It
reinforces the politics of resentment, and further legitimizes other forms of isolationism and xenophobia.