Posted on 06/06/2005 4:28:05 PM PDT by CHARLITE
The Republican Party's electoral dominance of the South is due to its willingness to employ "racial politics," according to a University of Maryland professor who also referred to the region as the "Old Confederacy," during remarks Friday at the liberal Take Back America conference in Washington, D.C.
Gar Alperovitz, said the Republican Party represents "the dark side," and has been able to exploit southern states because "a radical shift has occurred in racial politics, a radical shift.
"It isn't simply the moral issues. It is the fundamental implicit and explicit racial division of the working class" that allows Republican victories in southern 'red' states, Alperovitz said.
He noted that even though "very radical conservative Democrats" from the South used to dominate with their "racial politics," they represented "a strange moment in the 20th century
"It was very odd," Alperovitz continued. "We don't realize how odd it was; it always should have been reactionary Republicans" who exploited blacks.
Alperovitz, who authored the book, "America Beyond Capitalism," also launched into an attack on U.S. free enterprise during Friday's panel discussion and later in an interview with Cybercast News Service.
"The inequality of American capitalism has grown. It is an unsustainable," Alperovitz claimed. While conceding that capitalism is "the most productive system" known to humans, Alperovitz chastised what he sees as the overwhelming negatives of the system.
"[Capitalism is] very, very dangerous -- creates a great inequality, creates very great opportunity for violence and repression and demagoguery and it often undermines democracy, as in now in the United States," Alperovitz said.
"Who owns American capital? One percent owns 48 percent. That is a medieval number. You need to grasp it. That is a medieval number. That is not a modern number. That is off the charts,' Alperovitz said. "The way this distribution of wealth has been going on for the 20th century cannot continue ... this system continues to decay."
'That's a socialist idea'
Alperovitz also blamed American liberalism and the success he said the movement has had in expanding the welfare state for unnaturally propping up capitalism. "That [social welfare] model has allowed capitalism to go on in an attempt to clean up around the edges by organizing labor, environmentalists and social groups and taxing enough," Alperovitz said.
"That model is over, and I think what is on the table is whether or not the ownership of wealth becomes benefiting to the public directly rather than benefiting corporations or the wealthy. That's a socialist idea, if you like," he said.
But Alperovitz insisted that he is not a socialist. Instead, he said he favors a new system that would combine capitalism and socialism, but avoid big government. "I think the socialists are wrong about one thing and the conservatives are right -- put that much wealth into the state and connect it to politics. Inevitably, it leads to a dominant state and they were right about that."
Fellow panelist Sam Pizzigati, author of "Greed and Good: Understanding and Overcoming the Inequality that Limits Our Lives," agreed with Alperovitz and called for placing "the apologists for inequality on the defensive.
"They would be defending greed. We would be defending sharing. In that battle, I like our chances," Pizzigati said.
HUNH?
Let's call it: Crapitalism!
What an idiot. How do these mindless $^%&*^*% get jobs teaching in Colleges.
Capitalism and Socialism is something like the blood bank being run by Dracula.
We need people like the good professor here to travel and speak this BS to Dem audiences around the country. I want to see Dems relegated to the dust bin of history and kooks like this will help.
The party I see using race is the Dims, who every election spread racist lies in the black community about Republicans so blacks will stay on the Dim reservation even though the Dims do nothing for them.
The greatest weapon the Republicans have is the Democrats themselves. As Limbaugh has said, and it remains true on a daily basis, all that needs be done is to tell the truth about them. They'll do the rest.
"they represented "a strange moment in the 20th century "It was very odd," Alperovitz continued. "We don't realize how odd it was; it always should have been reactionary Republicans" who exploited blacks."
Mr, Alperovitz might want to look again. Democrats were hardly a Southern phenomenon. Sounds like they're running a little scared, here, trying to jump in front with a "better" explanation of Dim history.
I wholeheartedly concur. This mindless twit is beyond rational dialogue. He is visibly racist, demogogic and addlebrained. I am sure the key to his proposal is for his intelligentsia ilk to distribute wealth according to their benighted utopianism.
"Capitalism and Socialism is something like the blood bank being run by Dracula."
Whose name would be George Soros. It's called "Third Way Socialism."
There is no law preventing people from sharing their wealth with others. Plenty of liberals and socialists have money, and they are free to share it with others in any way they wish.
And there is no law stating that people cannot create their own socially "just" institutions. They can start a co-op and share all they own with other members ... that would be socialism within a capitalist system.
I just wish these people would get off their behinds and PRACTICE WHAT THEY PREACH for a change.
Well said.
Absolutely. It is reaching a point that anyone that openly admits to being a Dum is suspect of 80- IQ.
I don't even know where to start with this guy. If Take Back America is considered an important group within the Dim party, and I believe it is, then all we can hope for is that they keep talking like this.
They're headed right over a cliff...
This is why college degrees are increasingly becoming more and more meaningless.
Meaninglessly EXPENSIVE.
LOL: "Hi, let me introduce myself. I'm Bill, and I'm a registered Democrat."
Enterprise: "Oh your poor man, did you get sufficient special education assistance? Will McDonalds hire you?"
"Oh your poor man, did you get sufficient special education assistance? Will McDonalds hire you?"
That would explain the incessant "burger flipper" inference in reference to new job creation - it's projection.
Ping! I don't think Alperovitz was there when I attended Maryland. This guy is a freakin whacko trying to create an issue where none exists. Typical leftist trying to brainwash the electorate! Sadly, there are those gullible enough to believe him... and some of them post here.
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