Then, in part III, I will take up the issue of how an ambitiously pro-active alternative plan can do much more than just rescue the domestic auto industry-it can help lay the foundation for an entirely new economy, not just technologically new, but new in its basic conception of how wealth is jointly created, husbanded, and expanded for future generations, not just here in the US, but on a world-wide basis that helps form the foundation for lasting global security as well. The point of this third part is quite deliberately the opposite of the reigning Versailles ideology of "pragmatism." It argues, in short, that we have reached a crisis point beyond which incrementalism and "practical" compromise are doomed. There is no longer anything practical about continuing along this failed pathway. The only practical path available to us involves a radical restructuring of how we put the pieces of our social, political, economic and technological world together.
This is a follow-up to my diary GOP vs. UAW, USA, in which I'll extend my argument that the GOP's refusal to support the auto bailout is demonstrative of their hatred of America. I will draw on three recent documents. First is a Washington Post Op-Ed by Harold Meyerson, "Destroying What the UAW Built", which reviews some of the ways in which the UAW has been crucial to building both the American middle class, and the broader range of progressive American politics. Second is a list of various public subsidies for foreign automakers over the past 28 years, totally over $3.5 billion dollars-nearly $4.7 billion, adjusted for inflation. Third is an interview on Democracy Now! from Friday with union activist and writer Gregg Shotwell, a thirty-year General Motors retiree, who gives fine-grained look at what's really going on with this mega-union-busting attempt.
Let us be clear: the Republican Senator's refusal to go along with a bailout of the Big 3, and their targeting of the UAW for destruction is the most blatant demonstration one could wish for that Republicans and conservatives hate America. It is perfectly predictable, really, since over the last 50 years or more their favorite propaganda line-or at least their bottom one-has been that liberals and Democrats hate America. And if there's one thing we've learned about conservatives and Republicans it's this: the easiest way to know what they're up to is listen to what they accuse others of.
The evidence, in this case, is utterly overwhelming. For the entire period of the Democratic-dominated Fifth Party (1933-1968), and a few years beyond (until roughly 1973), the average American worker saw their income rise on a relatively steady basis, broadly shared across all income levels. Since then, throughout the vast majority of the Sixth Party System (1968-2008), in which divided government prevailed, income gains have been sharply concentrated among the top 1%. (See chart on flip.) The dominant sector in the Fifth Party System was industry, and the dominant business sector was automobile manufacturing. The UAW, as the dominant labor union in the dominant sector of the dominant sector, was key to setting the pace for broadly-shared prosperity.
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