Conservatism Unravels, Part Five

For "Part Four, see:

http://pontificating-randy.blogspot.com/2008/12/conservatism-unravels-part-four.html

With the Republicans (including many new, what I called, "fire breathing conservatives") in control of Congress, Clinton and his administration developed a basic political strategy which came to be called "triangulation." With liberals on the outs in Congress, it gave Clinton the chance to move more rightward. Clinton, ever the politician, saw that the Republicans had ideas that were, at least in principle, favored by many Americans, including many folks who identified themselves as Democrats. Congressional Republicans would propose legislation, and the left wing of the Democratic delegation would offer counter proposals, but Clinton would frequently take something of both proposals and offer his own third plan (thus "triangulation"). Clinton aimed to take as many issues off the table for Republicans as possible, while garnering as much of the credit for himself as possible. Welfare reform was passed and signed into law by the President.*** Earlier, Clinton had proposed special funds to be distributed to local communities for law enforcement, with the aim of increasing the number of police by 100,000 nationally to combat the crime rate. This was almost the perfect "triangulation," as it used federal money (favored by liberals), but gave that money to local governments (favored by conservatives). A fair number of law enforcement people hopped on the Clinton bandwagon, thus nibbling away at a loyal Republican constituency. The crime rate did drop, but furious Republicans couldn't wait to dismantle the program after Clinton left office.

During Clinton's time in office, the economy revived, and in fact, boomed, but underlying all of this was much speculative behavior, especially in Internet and related businesses. Further, gradually American based manufacturing took some hits from the foreign trade deals. With the Cold War essentially over, Clinton was able to shift money around to other areas (some would say that he neglected the military too much, and that's a worthy debate, but it also has to be remembered that Republicans controlled Congress for six of Clinton's eight years, so any blame must be shared). Another benefit for Clinton was that energy prices tended to be pretty low during his terms in office; that is, until about his last year, as then prices began to creep up. There's no question that centrist Clinton, advised by Wall Streeter Robert Rubin, bought into a lot of the deregulation concepts, and it was on his watch that many banking safeguards from the Depression were regrettably removed by the Republican Congress.

The various Clinton scandals (including sex scandals) and investigations hurt Clinton's presidency (AND the country), but like Houdini, Clinton escaped removal from office, but interestingly and ironically two of his Republican critics did not survive, as both Newt Gingrich and Bob Livingston resigned for sex scandals of their own. Hmm, maybe "people who live in glass houses shouldn't throw stones?" Well known Henry Hyde, a congressman from Illinois, and former Democrat turned Republican, was also involved in a sex scandal, but remained in office.

To be continued....

***Many on the Left were highly critical of many of the reforms, and of Clinton for signing the legislation. One of their main criticisms was that the two year limitation on benefits would prove to be too stringent. With the economy now in massive contraction, we may find out if they were correct. The overall issue of welfare had been a bug-a-boo for Democrats for quite some time. To hear Republicans tell it, even decades ago, the whole problem with U.S. budget deficits was because of welfare. There's no question that, to the Republicans' credit, the situation with welfare got out of hand, but the idea that it was at the root of virtually every problem, including the budget deficits, was nonsense. Many on the Right trumpet VA benefits, which is in many ways a form of welfare. I'm for helping veterans, but again, it comes down to how far you go.

Word Histories:
Was-past tense verb form-This much used word goes back to Indo European root "wes," which had a concept of "remain, dwell." The Old Germanic offshoot continued with this meaning as "wesanan." The developing Germanic dialects continued forms of the word: Old Saxon had "wesan," Old Norse had "vesa," Old Frisian "wesa," Gothic "wisan," Old High German "wesen," and Old English had "wesan," which meant "to remain." The first and third person singular form in Old English: "waes," which eventually became "was," and supplied English with the past form of "to be." Modern German has the related "war" (pronounced "vahr") for "was," and "Wesen," a noun meaning "being, existence, essence."

Some Lines From The Inaugural Address

I just wanted to point out these few lines from President Obama's Inaugural Address; they could have been written by Randy:

Regarding the "market:" (bold print has been added by me)

"Its power to generate wealth and expand freedom is unmatched, but this crisis has reminded us that without a watchful eye, the market can spin out of control- and that a nation cannot prosper long when it favors only the prosperous. The success of our economy has always depended not just on the size of our gross domestic product, but on the reach of our prosperity; on the ability to extend opportunity to every willing heart..."

These are words worth considering. In these times, when millions of Americans have suffered, or are now threatened with, foreclosure; when millions have had their savings and retirement funds depleted, this nation has got to start a program of rejuvenation for Americans who aren't in the top income brackets. Many, especially many middle age or older Americans, will never recover from what has been done to to the country; their lives have been ruined. Hopefully the younger folks can bounce back.

Word History:
Hoar-This word is seldom used in American English, except by writers, perhaps because one of its pronunciations is like "whore?" The other pronunciation is something of a combination of the "oa," kind of like "ho-are."), and more so in its adjectival form "hoary." The word is used in England/Britain more often. It goes back to Indo European "koi," which meant "shine." The Old Germanic offshoot, "khairaz," meant "gray/grey," and then by further extension, "old, white or gray with age." In Old English is was "har," which continued with the same meanings. By the 13th Century, it was also being used to describe frost, as it resembled an old man's gray beard and hair, and the spelling had altered to "hore" (and the ending "e" was pronounced as "eh/ah). English continues to use the term for "old and white with age," but close relatives German and Dutch gave the word a twist, as did Old English, as the notion of "old" was given the added meaning of "venerable," and forms were used to show respect to someone, and thus German has "Herr" and Dutch has "Mijnheer," as the equivalent to English "mister," and Old English had "hearra," which meant "master." German "Herr" also means "master, lord, gentleman." Forms of English "hoar" are used in a number of place names in England, and some believe it was because many centuries ago the places had been marked with gray stones.

The Economic Plight

George Bush has been touting the "52 months of economic growth" during his presidency in recent days. While I understand he's presenting his case, he can't deny that the country has regressed economically. Even during those 52 months, many Americans experienced falling wages, unstable employment, and benefit cuts. Of course, the wealthiest Americans saw tremendous gains in their incomes, and many of them took that money, and the extra money provided to them from Bush's tax cuts, and drove the price of virtually everything sky high in the futures markets!!! They picked our pockets, pillaged us, and took everything that wasn't nailed down (and I'm not sure of that!). Bush turned them loose on us, removing as many regulations as possible, but in the end they created "bubbles" throughout the economy, and now those bubbles have burst, leaving us with just a lot of hot air. You can't turn the country over to a bunch of greedy egomaniacs!!!

A large segment of American society has been essentially bankrupted by the policies of recent times. Many cashed in pretty much everything they had to just try to stay afloat. Until that segment begins to recover, the country will lag economically. I was stunned to read a recent poll that showed like 47% of Americans said they are living paycheck to paycheck. That number seems a bit high to me, and I don't know if that includes retirees on pensions and Social Security, but even if the actual number is somewhat less, it still shows that many, many Americans are struggling and are just on the edge of a total nightmare.

The Bush people wanted to take the country back in time and they did....to 1929!

(I'll try to do a word history the next time)

The Blagojevich Soap Opera

This whole episode seems to be a comedy of (apparent) errors. The problems all stem from the Federal prosecutor, Fitzgerald. His news conference and revelation of taping phone conversations and accusations against the Illinois governor put many folks in a box, right off the bat. The Illinois legislative leaders made it clear that they would seek to remove Blagojevich from office. The Illinois Secretary of State, a Democrat, also stated that he would not sign any papers giving certification to a senate appointee made by Blagojevich. Democrats in the U.S. Senate, led by Harry Reid, issued statements that they would NOT seat ANY appointee made by Blagojevich. With all of these "absolutes" made, it now seems that there were some major misjudgments made.

Recently, the Federal prosecution has asked for an extension in filing an indictment against the Illinois governor. It seems that his original accusations put the cart before the horse. The political system moved against Blagojevich because of Fitzgerald's announcement, but now Fitzgerald has put off an indictment. This all gave Blagojevich the chance to appoint a new senator for Illinois, a power given Illinois governors by state law. He made the absolutely "perfect" political choice to give the finger to Harry Reid and company, as well as everyone else involved in this case, as he chose a former Illinois official, Roland Burris, who was essentially retired, and who happens to be black. This threw the whole situation back at pretty much everyone lined up against Blagojevich. This immediately brought the race issue to the forefront, and Blagojevich quickly offered comments that Harry Reid had called him about the appointment of a new senator awhile back. According to Blagojevich, Reid found several prospective candidates basically unacceptable, because of his feeling that they would not be able to win election in their own right in 2010. Two of those candidates were black congressmen.
Appointee Burris emphatically said that he had every intention of taking his seat in the Senate, and indeed, he went to Washington for the opening of the Senate on January 6. His certification papers lacked the signature of the Illinois Secretary of State, and this was the reason given for turning him away. The Democratic Senate leaders have been in a pickle since Blagojevich announced the appointment of Burris, but this bought them a little time to think things through. They now "seem" reconciled to seating Burris, if he gets the signature of the Illinois Secretary of State. Senate leaders will not need eggs for breakfast for quite some time, although a face cloth would be handy.

The Senate leaders have been claiming that they have a right to refuse to seat Burris, because any appointment made by Blagojevich is "tainted." The problem is, Illinois law gives the governor the right to appoint new senators to fill vacancies. The last I checked, Blagojevich is still the governor. Any law passed by the Illinois legislature will need his signature, so why is this appointment somehow different? The people involved here really got into a mess and Blagojevich took advantage of it. To me, the prosecutor needed to stay out of this whole thing, unless he was ready to bring an immediate indictment. By making public statements, this has thrown this whole thing up in the air, as politicians "thought" they were doing right, because of the prosecutor's statements. Fitzgerald seems to have tried to avert a potential "sale" of the Illinois senate seat, but I'm not sure this was the right thing to do. Democracy can be messy, but that's what it is. If Blagojevich had been able to "sell" the seat to the highest bidder, and all of the evidence ducks were in a row, then there are procedures for the Senate to handle such matters. Further, there are legal procedures that would have dealt with Blagojevich, and those procedures may yet come into play against him, whenever Fitzgerald actually gets an indictment. At a time when the country faces a severe recession, we didn't need this soap opera on the news every day, but stay tuned, because who knows what's next?

Word History:
Air-It "seems" to go back to Indo European "awer," which had a notion of "raise, rise." This gave Ancient Greek "aer" (meaning, "air, clouds, atmosphere"). The Greek term passed into Latin and thus into Old French as "air." During the 1300s it gradually replaced the original Germanic word in English for "gases of the atmosphere," which was "lyft, luft," and I'm sure most of you know that German still has "Luft" to mean "air." (Most would probably be more familiar with the military term "Luftwaffe," for the German air force, which by the way literally means "air weapon," and yes, "Waffe" is related to English "weapon.") Also, "lyft, luft" didn't really disappear, but their replacement by "air" gave them leeway to develop in a little different way, and they eventually became "lift" and "loft" in modern English. Again, you see the notion of "raise" with "lift," and "be raised up above the ground floor," with "loft."

New Year's Words

Some "word histories" for the new year. First, I accidentally left out the following about "quick," in the last segment:

German dialect has "quick," which, like its English relative, means "quick." It is, however, not pronounced quite the same, but as "kvick." Now that I got that over "kvickly:"

New-This word goes back to Indo European "newos," and was passed along to the developing Indo European languages, for example; in Greek as "neos," which later gave several loan words to English with the prefix "neo;" in Latin as "novus," which gave Italian "nuovo," Spanish "nuevo," French "nouveau," and Portuguese "novo;" in Lithuanian as "naujas;" in Russian as "novyi." The Germanic offshoot was "neujaz," which gave German "neu," Dutch "nieuw," Danish, Norwegian and Swedish "ny," and modern English "new." In Old English it was niwe/neowe/niowe, I suppose the differences were due to dialect.

Year-This word goes back to the Indo European base "yer" (long "e") and "yor" (long "o"), which meant "year," but also "season of the year."*** The Old Germanic offshoot was "jaeram," which, besides English "year" gave German "Jahr," Dutch "jaar," Danish "aar," and Norwegian and Swedish "ar." In Old English it was "gear," in West Saxon and "ger" in Anglian. Close relatives of Old English on the Continent were: Old Saxon "jar," Old High German "jar," Old Frisian "ger." In addition, "yearly" in Old English was "gearlic (not "garlic!"), and German has "jährlich."

***In Czech, for instance, "jaro" means "spring."

Deregulation and Us

I came across this article (with link below) and it covers so many things well, that I thought I'd share it with readers here. I know that some financial jargon is difficult to understand, but I also think this article explains the basic flaws in the system in a relatively easy way. In many ways, this is what I've been gradually leading up to in the "Conservatism Unravels" series. (A word history is below the link)

http://seekingalpha.com/article/71265-the-credit-bubble-deregulation-gone-wild

Word History:
Quick-I love this word because of the way the meaning has changed, although with ample connection to the original meaning. Old Germanic had "kwikwaz," which had to do with "living, being alive." This had been derived from the Indo European base "gwej/gwiwo," which also meant "to live, be alive."*** The developing Germanic dialects took the word in some form, and Old Frisian and Old Saxon had "quik," Old Norse had "kvikr," Old High German had "quek," and Old Randy had...let's skip that one. Old English had "cwic," which also meant "living, alive." The notion of "living" grew to mean "lively," which in turn, during the 1400s, took on the meaning of "swift, fast." Modern German has "keck," which means "bold, saucy, forward." Dutch has "kwiek," meaning "sprightly, lively," Swedish has "kvick," which means "rapid." In English we still have the original meaning found in the expression, "the quick and the dead" ("the living and the dead").

***This base also gave words to languages related to English further down the family tree:
Latin had "vivus," Greek had "bio," Russian had "zhivoj," all with connections to "alive, living, lively."