As much as I hate to say this, I fear that the influence of special interest groups and lobby firms is radically disproportionate in light of the number s of people they actually represent. Wall Street has more influence than Main Street, and K Street has more power than Middle Class Boulevard. I sincerely believe that this has been problematic, regardless of the benefits such enterprises may occasionally benefit us.
Then again, this conundrum is very familiar to me. It is a tension I have lived with for a long time. I have wandered for many years on the dividing line between paleolibertarianism and paleoconservatism. Whether it be free trade or tariffs, open or closed borders, localism or nationalism, populism or federalist, capitalist or agrarian, I have found myself between a rock and a hard place. Good arguments all around, heroes and villains in both camps.
So why is this? I think that a large part of this has to do with my upbringing, both where I lived and the family values cherished within the home. As a middle-class Michigander I also see things from a middle-America perspective.
Take agriculture as an example. On the one hand we understand that farming tends to be work very few wish to do. On the other hand, we have seen corporations destroy family farming and jobs that were once offered to those with little immigration go to those with no documentation of citizenship.
Then we have trade. As middle-class people we certainly enjoy our Meijer's and Walmarts. We like the fact that what we buy doesn't cost us too much because we have seen our incomes go too far down. Then again, most of us in Michigan have our incomes go down because our jobs are being offshored and outsourced. NAFTA, CAFTA, and other so-called free trade agreements have assures that Michigan's number one export is manufacturing jobs.
This has resulted in a rise in populist sentiment. People are beginning to see that the real war going on is the one between corporatist and the Johnny Q public, capitalists and economic nationalists, as well as between foreign interests and the jobs over at local UAW.
The war is really between the abstract and that which we personally experience every day. It is a war between idealism and realism. More importantly, it is a war between a vision of what a minority hope the world may become over against a perspective that sees the world as it has been and how it ought to remain.
So here we are, between Wall St. and Main. We stand between the rock of special interest groups and the hard place of the realization that our nostalgia for things past may be nothing more than a phantasm. Where should we go? I am not sure. One thing I am certain of is that I don't enjoy this ride, and fear that we may be traveling the road to national ruin.
Then again, this conundrum is very familiar to me. It is a tension I have lived with for a long time. I have wandered for many years on the dividing line between paleolibertarianism and paleoconservatism. Whether it be free trade or tariffs, open or closed borders, localism or nationalism, populism or federalist, capitalist or agrarian, I have found myself between a rock and a hard place. Good arguments all around, heroes and villains in both camps.
So why is this? I think that a large part of this has to do with my upbringing, both where I lived and the family values cherished within the home. As a middle-class Michigander I also see things from a middle-America perspective.
Take agriculture as an example. On the one hand we understand that farming tends to be work very few wish to do. On the other hand, we have seen corporations destroy family farming and jobs that were once offered to those with little immigration go to those with no documentation of citizenship.
Then we have trade. As middle-class people we certainly enjoy our Meijer's and Walmarts. We like the fact that what we buy doesn't cost us too much because we have seen our incomes go too far down. Then again, most of us in Michigan have our incomes go down because our jobs are being offshored and outsourced. NAFTA, CAFTA, and other so-called free trade agreements have assures that Michigan's number one export is manufacturing jobs.
This has resulted in a rise in populist sentiment. People are beginning to see that the real war going on is the one between corporatist and the Johnny Q public, capitalists and economic nationalists, as well as between foreign interests and the jobs over at local UAW.
The war is really between the abstract and that which we personally experience every day. It is a war between idealism and realism. More importantly, it is a war between a vision of what a minority hope the world may become over against a perspective that sees the world as it has been and how it ought to remain.
So here we are, between Wall St. and Main. We stand between the rock of special interest groups and the hard place of the realization that our nostalgia for things past may be nothing more than a phantasm. Where should we go? I am not sure. One thing I am certain of is that I don't enjoy this ride, and fear that we may be traveling the road to national ruin.
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