Using Technology to Deepen Democracy, Using Democracy to Ensure Technology Benefits Us All

Sunday, September 21, 2008

More Than Words!

Obama and Pelosi are both promising "no blank check" in those exact words. If these are "only words" it will be a rank betrayal and unprecedented disaster for everything they stand for at their best (and an all too familiar capitulation of principle). They are saying the right things -- roughly -- but we need to remain focused, with our dialing fingers ready to express our disapproval of any wrong moves.

All the noise they are making about "executive compensation limits" makes me extremely nervous and skeptical for one thing -- since that particular pathology is a symptom of deeper problems but scarcely represents the most urgent issue demanding address here. In fact I worry that an emphasis on grotesquely disproportionate executive compensation might reveal a rather contemptuous misreading of progressive concerns about any unaccountable and ruinously inequitable bailout on the part of the Congressional Millionaires Club as in fact some sort of cartoonish mob resentment of a few high rollers with bad hairpieces.

I await tomorrow's moves with extreme nervousness, but also with a little more hope than I expected. Lots more people are saying lots more sensible things lots more clearly and forcefully to lots more sounds of support than I expected as all this mess began to unfold in earnest.

No comments: