Park Slope: The Blue Half of the Two Americas
As we saw in the Brooklyn political donations map last week, Brooklyn tilts heavily toward the blue. Perhaps that’s why the British newspaper The Guardian chose it to represent left-leaning America. “If New York city epitomises liberal America; and if Park Slope, a neighbourhood of Brooklyn heavily peopled by writers, artists and other creative souls,…
As we saw in the Brooklyn political donations map last week, Brooklyn tilts heavily toward the blue. Perhaps that’s why the British newspaper The Guardian chose it to represent left-leaning America. “If New York city epitomises liberal America; and if Park Slope, a neighbourhood of Brooklyn heavily peopled by writers, artists and other creative souls, epitomises left-leaning New York; then the co-op epitomises left-leaning Park Slope.” That’s where they perched to poll Obamamaniacs about their feelings, which were “somewhere between excitement that Obama might be about to win, and uncontrollable anxiety that the Democratic cause was about to be ravaged once again.” Apparently, anxiety is the prevailing sentiment. “One Park Slope food co-op member said a man in her block of apartments had stopped shaving until victory day; his beard was already long and bushy. Elsewhere across the liberal heartlands, a woman from Denver was reported to have put her love life on hold until the Colorado result came in, while a psychotherapist from Manhattan’s Upper West Side said about 90% of her patients were raising electoral fears in their therapy sessions.” By tonight, folks should be able to revert to shaving, dating discussing their parents in analysis, one way or another. By the way, the other America? Orange, Texas. “‘I am not for socialism. Let’s just put it at that way,’ [the voter] snapped and then stalked angrily into the local Wal-Mart.”
Fear and Loathing Divide Two Americas on Eve of Vote [Guardian]
Photo by atdubya.
Benson – You conveniently express defense spending relative to GDP, yet mention “SS, medicare and the interest” as a portion of the budget. This is disingenuous and misleading.
Defense spending alone accounts for 37% of the budget. Therefore more than a third of the interest is also defense related, bringing the total over 40%.
Snark Slope;
If you want to rest your case on a statement that does not take into account inflation or the growth of the GDP, well, so much for the quality of the argument.
The fact of the matter remains that our defense spending as a percentage of GDP is at very low levels compared to most post-WWII periods, especially the cold war period.
It also remains a fact that SS, medicare and the interest on the debt consum more than 50% of the federal budget, and their share grows every year.
If you want to advocate that Obama should cut our defense spending down to levels of hostile countries like Russia, China and Iran, be my guest. I’m sure he’ll take that advice and watch his level of support plummet. The fact is that is he is calling for an increase in our troops in Afganistan.
This is what I am talking about:
“U.S. defense spending in FY 2009, projected to reach over $700 billion, will be the highest since World War II, and represent nearly half of the world’s total military expenditures.
When including $170 billion in projected funding for ongoing military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, the United States will spend significantly more, in inflation adjusted dollars, for defense in FY 2009 than it did during the peak years of the Korean War (1953; $545 billion), Vietnam (1968; $550 billion), or the 1980s Reagan-era buildup (1989; $522 billion).
The United States is also slated to spend more on defense in FY 2009 than the next 45 highest spending countries combined – including 5.8 times more than China (2nd highest), 10.2 times more than Russia (3rd highest), and 98.6 times more than Iran (22nd highest) – and will account for 48 percent of the world’s total military spending.
The defense budget has increased by an average annual rate of more than six percent in nine of the last ten years, a sustained growth rate not seen since World War II.”
– http://www.armscontrolcenter.org/policy/securityspending/articles/tying_spending_to_gdp_bad_policy/
Snark Slope;
What in the world are you talking about?
Note the following report from the CONGRESSIONAL budget office:
http://www.cbo.gov/ftpdocs/88xx/doc8877/Chapter4.7.1.shtml
The first sentence of the report states it all. For further confirmation, look at the section concerning defense spending as a percentage of GDP. It is at low levels compared to the cold war days.
Bloated defense spending is the real 800lb gorilla in the room.
Bxgrl;
I disagree. I’m certain that he used the word “sacrifice” in a rhetorical sense. However, I am talking about a specific policy proposal, such as proposing a reduction in social security payments and the like. Not only has he not done that, but he is promising more entitlement candy to folks.
Social security and especially medicare are the 800 pound gorillas in the room. Unless something is done, they will consume the lion’s share of the federal budget in just a few years. Few politicians want to touch this “third rail” truth of electoral issues, for fear of losing votes. In this regard, Obama is pretty much the same.
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Polemicist is definitely part of that hypocrisy, northsloperenter. Of course judging by his first snark of the day :”Park Slope full of creative people? You mean wealthy dilettantes and indolent fops who aspire to love the architecture of their neighborhood but repudiate the culture, laws, and ideals of the age in which it was built?” I would also have to say jealous, envious, bitter…..I’d go on but I am deriving much satisfaction over the thought that he’s probably going down into the fallout shelter he built in his mothers basement and will sit out the next few years curled up in a fetal ball surrounded by bags of doritos and whimpering over the “aging hippies” who have taken over his world. Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha……..
What goes around, comes around. the conservatives who are freaking out over “socialism” need only to look at the record of the last 8 years. Think people, think. whence comes this huge rejection? think- begins with….B…..
The whole McCain campaign was a disaster from beginning to end, because the conservative right lack the ability to self-analyze. Instead of bemoaning Obama’s election, you might want to take a long hard look at what you did wrong.
FYI benson- Obama did call for sacrifice and hard work. several times. You betcha.
11217:
There are two issues. The first is you accept the ideology espoused by Obama. You don’t see the contradictions I described because you don’t agree with them. The second is that you are still new to Park Slope, and haven’t picked up on a lot of the hypocrisy of the neighborhood and its culture. Your writings are consistently idealistic, which is admirable. It isn’t surprising you don’t agree.
Benson: good posts.
benson and PropJoe,
The republicans had 8 years to address the problems created by the Clinton administration.
I will assume neither of you are so stupid as to not realize this.
Therefore I must conclude you are trying to shift blame rather than accept responsibility.
Responsibility is the price of power.
You must pay this price if you want to keep power.
Having the power to fix problems but ignoring them and making excuses instead is a sign of incompetence and weak will. Neither of those attributes is worthy of respect.