Time to challenge conservatism

Wake up, America!!!

By Steven T. Jones

Is John McCain – who has pulled out of Friday’s presidential debate, purportedly to deal with the financial crisis -- running scared? He should be, because this could be a moment of truth for conservative populism in the U.S., a time when the fantasies and outright lies behind its self-serving ideology are finally exposed.

Unfortunately, that isn’t happening yet. Sure, there’s lots of resistance to aspects of the Bush Administration’s $700 billion bailout proposal out there. And Barack Obama edges in on a progressive diagnosis with comments such as, “The era of greed and irresponsibility on Wall Street and in Washington has created a financial crisis as profound as any we have faced since the Great Depression.”

But the problem is more fundamental than that, as we at the Guardian are being reminded once again by the fiscal conservatives who have been seeking our endorsements this election season. Even here in socially liberal San Francisco, so-called “moderates” -- from Mayor Gavin Newsom to his Board of Supervisors appointees Carmen Chu and Sean Elsbernd to Chu opponent Ron Dudum and Dist. 1 candidate Sue Lee – still spew well-worn but discredited conservative platitudes celebrating the private sector and demonizing government.

Progressives should push back, call their bluff, and stop being afraid to be accused of fomenting class warfare. Because the rich and powerful have been raiding the public coffers for long enough -- waging top-down class warfare -- and now is the time for us to fight back.

Irresponsible and mindless “no new taxes” pledges have crippled government’s ability to regulate the buccaneering (and now failing) late capitalist system and provide social services to citizens. We saw that clearly in this year’s record California budget stalemate, which should be blamed entirely on Republicans who refused to engage in good faith discussions that might involve revenue measures.

Groups such as Grover Norquist’s Americans for Tax Reform, with its stated desire to destroy government as we know it and its use of Nixonian “enemies lists,” have effectively raided the public treasury with tactics that border on treasonous. Unfortunately, the mainstream media is too corrupted by the imperatives of Wall Street and cowed by the mere desire to seem “objective” to speak truth to power and give citizens the information and perspective they need to understand how they’re being screwed.

Modern robber barons like Phil Anschutz buy our venerable San Francisco Examiner and turn it into just another conservative propaganda sheet, even endorsing John McCain in today’s paper. And the Hearst-owned Chronicle has always been more concerned with ridding the city of homeless panhandlers than with protecting citizens against larcenous corporations and the pandering politicians they sponsor.

Just consider the issue of home ownership, which has precipitated the current financial meltdown. Whenever we’ve asked local fiscal conservatives like Elsbernd and Newsom how they’re going to protect affordable rental housing in San Francisco – something they don’t have a good track record of doing – they answer with statements of support for expanding home ownership opportunities.

Well, we’ve now seen where that approach has gotten us. I’ve always argued with their bait-and-switch, telling them that no credible financial advisor would tell me that buying a home in San Francisco on my income is a smart or reasonable option (hell, once upon a time, banks would never lend a median income San Franciscan the money to buy a median priced home here because it just doesn’t pencil out). And now the failing housing and credit markets have graphically illustrated a simple point: I was right and they were wrong, dishonestly so.

So why does this faith-based belief in the effectiveness of fiscal conservatism still have such an influence in San Francisco politics? Why are Dudum and Chu getting away with opposing Prop. N – a small but important tax on transfers of property worth over $5 million – and refusing to name any of the cuts they will have to make to balance the budget (despite our best efforts to nail them down).

Don’t get me wrong: I don’t think real, honest conservatives are the problem here, just these pseudo-conservative cowards who pander to the selfishness of many pockets of voters. Many true conservatives are opposing this bailout package and arguing that the free market system doesn’t work unless you let even big players fail (otherwise you get the state-subsidized market system that we now have in the U.S., with money for wars and corporate subsidies, but not for social services or needed regulation). I don’t agree with the conservative libertarians on fiscal policy – their approach would allow people to starve in the streets while allowing even greater consolidation of wealth -- but I respect their intellectual consistency.

If the Democratic Party, from Newsom and Chris Daly up to Nancy Pelosi and Obama, can’t understand how to take advantage of this moment, when conservatism’s disdain for taxes and regulation has pushed the economic system to the brink of another great depression, then we’re all doomed. It’s imperative that Democrats find their voice and use it to promote the common good over the interests of the wealthy few, otherwise they’ll follow the Republicans into infamy and the country will be torn apart into a form of tribalism.

We need to transfer more of the country’s wealth over to the public sector – from upper bracket income tax increases on the federal and state levels down to approving the revenue measures on San Francisco’s ballot – rather than simply subsidizing Wall Street’s excesses by opening up the treasury. And we need to make sure those public funds are going to imperatives such as rebuilding our infrastructure and creating truly affordable housing – as Prop. B would do – rather than subsidizing corporations in risky schemes such as Newsom’s partnership with overextended homebuilder Lennar Corp.

As former Democratic presidential candidate Dennis Kucinich said at his party’s presidential convention in Denver last month: “Wake up, America!” You’re being deceived, even right here in San Francisco, and it's been going on for a long time. It's time to fight back.

Comments (2)

Shane:

Sean Elsbernd was appointed by Newsom in August of 2004 but then elected in his own right in November of that same year to a full term on the Board. He's currently up for re-election for his second term. Therefore he's not a "Newsom appointee" but rather a duly elected supervisor in his own right - you owe him and the voters of District 7 a correction and would be wise to stop misstating the facts.

Posted by Shane | September 26, 2008 11:18 PM

Scribe

He was originally a Newsom appointee and my point was that they share a fiscal conservative approach. Elsbernd was elected and will likely be elected again in November. And frankly, I find him more reasonable than most conservatives and the mayor. But progressives need to challenge the misguided blind faith in corporations and the market that has a strong influence on the political discourse, even here in San Francisco.
Steven T. Jones

Posted by Scribe | September 29, 2008 12:13 PM

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