Sell outs and sell offs

The Dow Jones Industrial Index tumbled sharply today, a sign that even Wall Street has no stomach for the nation’s economic malaise and the international debt crisis.

The sell-off should have been expected. Our political system has failed us at a time when we need it functioning at a high level to deal with issues of unemployment, housing and wage stagnation. Rather than working to create jobs and inject money into the economy, we have a political class that is in thrall to the debt-hawks and a Republican Party whose only goal is the destruction of a presidency.

I was talking at lunch today with some of my fellow writers, and it is clear that we all feel the same sense of hopelessness, as though the nation’s well-being was being held hostage to political gamesmanship.

And the ugly undercurrent that has been bubbling up from the depths — the racism and xenophobia that has used a black president as an excuse for extreme behavior — is having real results in the halls of Congress and on the streets of America’s cities.

The left has failed to provide an alternative narrative, one in which government aids Americans and acts as our defender against corporate greed. That is the story we should be telling — while also reminding people that the Bush tax cuts, the recession and our two wars are responsible for most of the budget problems we are facing.

If we do not do that, we run the risk of allowing the right-wing populists to dominate debate and take the nation into the darkest of places.

The

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Author: hankkalet

Hank Kalet is a poet and freelance journalist. He is the economic needs reporter for NJ Spotlight, teaches journalism at Rutgers University and writing at Middlesex County College and Brookdale Community College. He writes a semi-monthly column for the Progressive Populist. He is a lifelong fan of the New York Mets and New York Knicks, drinks too much coffee and attends as many Bruce Springsteen concerts as his meager finances will allow. He lives in South Brunswick with his wife Annie. View all posts by hankkalet