Distributism in the Populist Moment

Life is full of pleasant things, regularly coming at times when they are least expected. Today just so happened to be one of those days. As I went out to check the mail, I noticed that my edition of The Week magazine had arrived. And there, on the cover, was a splendid picture of people rioting around the idol (i.e. the statue of the bull) in front of the New York Stock Exchange. The people with their fists in the air, shouting at the symbol of swinishness, pulling it down from its pedestal in a way reminiscent of the famous topple of Saddam’s statue, and the words “Populist Uprising” gracing the bottom of the page. The image beautifully captured the sentiment, and the words accurately reflected the image. It was spectacular in the truest sense of the word

Unfortunately, as with many articles of this nature, my joy was quickly and significantly diminished. The story was on page 18 in the Talking Points section and it only consumed the larger part of the upper-half of the page. That aside, the article was concerning to the $500,000 salary cap Obama has issued for all bank CEOs to receive per-annum. While I should have paid more attention to the cover of the magazine (which has the words “the new, $500,000 limit on CEO salaries” as the tag line), I figured that the story would deal with… well, the overall uprising of populism.

It was the earlier portion of January, 2008, when I began speaking more about populism, and in particular what I saw as the rise of populism in America. The populism I predicted was relatively moderate. I insisted that it would be a hodgepodge of ideas derived from what is typically referred to as the “right” and the “left.” People would be generally conservative on abortion, homosexual marriage, and a host of other “culture war” issues. On the other hand, people would still support public schooling. Very few would want to rid the system of Medicaid. Unemployment and welfare benefits would remain. They’d stand by the notion of Social Security. If trends continue to go in the direction they appear to be going, people maybe even endorse some form of universal health care. Furthermore, I believed that we would see an outcry against Wall Street, CEO salaries, and mega-monsters like Wal-Mart.

I still stand by my predictions, and I believe most of the indicators are pointing in that direction. Sadly, I don’t see this rising tide lasting too long before it breaches.

People are angry, this much is sure. But they either don’t really know why they are angry or they are taking it out on the wrong things. A casual conversation with Johnny Q. Public will get you an earful of emotionally charged tirades concerning the salaries of CEOs, how Scooter’s Hardware is going out of business because they can’t compete with Wal-Mart, and how the average Joe just can’t make the kind of living he used to with a hard day’s work. In all likelihood, you’ll even hear them talk about the hucksters and swindlers in Washington and Wall Street.

None of this is necessarily problematic. What is problematic is how this tirade is followed up with the same old song and dance that got us here in the first place. The very same person will go to the grave defending state capitalism, quoting “the ole Gipper” by saying “Government is the problem.” This person may be on their way in (or even out!) of Wal-Mart, while Scooter’s is just one mile up the road. He’ll stand by the wage-slave concept, decrying a Living, Family, Just Wage or vocational organizations as socialism. And he’ll probably tell you (depending on how the next few years go) that all we need to do is get more “conservative” Republicans like Sarah Palin in office to begin “taking care of business.”

If you haven’t been formally introduced to this person, or the mass of individuals he happens to represent, you haven’t been in the US very long. Or maybe you just haven’t been paying attention. At any rate, intellectual schizophrenia is the way of the day, and apathy runs thick through Main Street.

This isn’t to deny the ray of light peaking through the clouds. Not at all! It is simply admitting that, as of yet, it is little more than a sunbeam piercing through the clouds of convention tomfoolery. It’s a mere acknowledgment that the masses aren’t as angry with the socio-political apparatus as they are with who may be in control at the time. It’s a blame game, with all their bets being on top-down measures to make all the difference.

Yet even here it is not entirely doom and gloom. This underlying sentiment is real, it is emotional, and it is angry. What is required is good old distributist education. While a large portion of the populace may be experiencing frustration with the status quo, they need to realize that the answer is not found in merely tweaking the status quo, or even crossing their fingers in hope that those on Capitol Hill who just so happened to micromanage the status quo will make all the difference.

Distributists, then, are living in a time of great opportunity. People are dissatisfied, and they are willing to listen to “new” ideas. Better yet, most do not realizing that those “new” ideas are far from being “new.” Capitalists have had their chance. Socialists have had their chance. Now it is time for distributists to have their day in the sunbeam.

How long this uprising lasts is unknown. But it would be foolish not to take advantage of a brilliant opportunity to direct this populist moment towards a more humane political economy.

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SECOND BAILOUT BATTLE IS WEDNESDAY NIGHT

Senate leaders, both Democrat and Republican, have said they intend to bring a revised version of the so-called Bailout Bill to a vote Wednesday night, October 1st.

According to an updated report from the pro-globalist Bloomberg.com news service, the Senate version will have only minor or even cosmetic changes to it. But it will still give over $700 billion in taxpayer's money to the Wall Street elites. And it will still give the Secretary of the Treasury's office unaccountable power to regulate the economy.

And according to the Washington-based news site The Hill, the House will be limiting the amount of e-mails voters can send to their Congressmen. It is claimed that this will reduce strain on their computer systems, so as to avoid crashing it. Others believe this is only to limit the amount of protest e-mails Congressmen are getting over the horrendous Bailout Bill. I tend to believe the latter is the case.

Finally, according to the left-wing news website What Really Happened, thousands of people protested against the Bailout Bill outside Wall Street itself! But as is typical with the globalist so-called "mainstream media", they barely gave it notice at all. And this in their own home neighborhood as well.

In other words, the elitists in government and media and both "mainstream parties" are doing all they can to destroy the economy in the disguise of saving it. Centralizing economic power into ever fewer hands, as well as rescuing the Wall Street bankers from the effects of their greed, violates the basic tenets of Distributism.

So that being the case, if you can send an e-mail to your Senator and it gets through, do so. Otherwise, call your Senator's office on Wednesday. Be brief and be polite, for it is a given their offices will be - we hope - flooded with calls. Tell your Senators to vote "NO" on this version of the Bailout Bill.

By the grace of Almighty God and your calls and e-mails, we won in the House. We can do the same in the Senate too. But we need your prayers, e-mails and phone calls. This bill must be stopped cold. There can be no surrender to the globalists and the Wall Street elitists.

Tell your Senators to vote "NO" on the so-called Bailout Bill. Remember, the next vote on this is Wednesday night, October 1st.

Don't let the bad guys win! Thank you.

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BAILOUT BATTLE NOT OVER YET

Monday afternoon, the US House barely voted to reject the so-called Bailout Bill. The opposition got 228 votes, while the supporters got 205.

Thanks to you and millions of others like you across the country, this economic travesty was defeated.

HOWEVER.......

The same Congressional leaders who crafted this nightmare have vowed to work on it again, and bring it to a vote this Thursday. They will still try to give over $700 billion to the Wall Street bankers, freely admitting that this injection of money may not fix things.

So we have won a victory but the war still goes on.

From the pro-globalist CNN, Libertarian economist Jeffrey A. Miron wrote an opinion piece that says the banks in trouble should declare bankruptcy, not get a government bailout. You may read his piece HERE.

And former Republican presidential candidate Dr. Ron Paul's Campaign For Liberty website has the lists of those who voted for and against. Go HERE to find out how your Congressman voted.

Friends and neighbors, we need to keep up the pressure to make sure Congress doesn't approve any giveaway of our hard-earned tax money to the Wall Street globalist elites. We urge you to tell your Congressmen to vote “NO” on any version of the so-called Bailout Bill.

In the meantime, let us thank God in His Mercy for this victory.

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Devils In The Details

The currently proposed legislation under discussion in the US Congress - the one proposing to bail out Wall Street – has more constitutional horrors in it that anyone thought.

Mike Whitney, writing for the anti-Establishment Left publication Counterpunch, reports on a provision within the legislation that would give the Secretary of the Treasury unlimited power regarding economic policies. He quotes directly from Section 8 of the proposed law, and it is frightening, to say the least.

We urge you to contact your Congressmen and Senators today, and demand they not back this proposed Wall Street bailout. Don't let the Congress abdicate any more power for the sake of either greed or cowardice. Thank you.

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