Liberalism and conservatism, in various ways, have been hijacked by corporatism.
van Gelder: So how do you account for the fact that this audit hasn't happened, given that people on both sides of the aisle would like to see it happen?
McCarthy: Well, the military-industrial complex has a pretty smart strategy. They divided up the manufacturing of armaments into different congressional districts. If the average congressman realizes he has a factory or some other interest within his district, he's going to be responsive to that interest rather than to the public interest and to the national interest. So you've got a lot of money gaming the system and a kind of archipelago of military-industrial outposts that actually wield tremendous influence in Congress.
There's a lot less money on the side of libertarians and conservatives, and progressives and liberals, who want to restrict the Pentagon.
van Gelder: What about linking the minimum wage to inflation? That's another item that Ralph Nader proposed.
McCarthy : I think you'd find a lot of conservatives are skeptical of that. They're afraid that the minimum wage causes unemployment, and they're very concerned about the idea of the federal government setting the pace for wages in the country.
Nader: Yes, and a new argument, by conservatives like businessman Ron Unz, is that the more the minimum wage catches up with inflation--which, adjusted from 1968 would put it at $11/hour federal minimum, it's now $7.25/ hour--the less the burden on public assistance paid by a taxpayer--like food stamps, housing assistance, Medicaid, and so forth. That argument has begun to attract more and more thinkers in the conservative arena who believe we should not have taxpayers subsidize Wal-Mart's low wages with a slew of government subsidies.
van Gelder: What about the notion of breaking up the too-big-to-fail banks?
Nader: That comes in about 90 percent, doesn't it, Dan?
McCarthy: [laughter] It enjoys a surprisingly large amount of support, at least at the level of a thought experiment. We haven't seen much progress on that front, but even the American Enterprise Institute--which is a pretty unadventurous conservative think tank--has been very open to the idea of breaking up the large banks.
van Gelder: Dan, would there be support among conservatives for getting rid of corporate personhood?
McCarthy : A lot of conservatives are leery of what would happen if you had a change in our fundamental legal approach to corporations.
Nader: I think this is an area conservatives are beginning to explore. They're a bit queasy about corporations--which are artificial entities created by the state--having equal constitutional rights with real people. When they see corporate-managed trade agreements, like NAFTA, subordinating local, state, and national sovereignty to the imperatives of global commerce, they get quite upset.
So I think, Dan, in another three or four years we're going to see more writings under the conservative banner on corporate globalization and corporate personhood.
McCarthy: I think you're quite right. There's certainly a question about the nature of the Constitution and personhood. These are things that conservatives need to be thinking about very carefully and systematically, and a lot of what you have right now is a kind of complacency.
van Gelder: Another item from Ralph's list: rethinking the war on drugs, and I would add to that the very high rate of incarceration we have in the United States.
McCarthy : I think this is a really big growth area for conservatives. It brings together Christian conservatives, who see that what we're doing in our prisons has no restorative element--it's at times a sadistic approach, just sweeping people under the rug. And also, of course, libertarians have been very critical both of the war on drugs and of the prison system for a very long time.
(Note: You can view every article as one long page if you sign up as an Advocate Member, or higher).
7
4
3
