Noam Chomsky interview about his new book "Failed States"

http://www.boulderweekly.com/archive/060106/coverstory.html

The part that I've put in bold, below, might be particularly interesting for DUers today.

--snippets:

Boulder Weekly catches up with Noam Chomsky to discuss his new book, the United States, Iraq, and whether Democrats will bring their A-game this November.

...Chomsky says that the United States ignores public opinion—from disapproval of the Iraq War, to internal issues like health care and tax cuts. In fact, the U.S. electoral system is designed to eliminate genuine politicial alternatives, he says. The United States is therefore suffering from a "democratic deficit," which helps corporations, but starves average citizens of benefits and wages—in addition to an honest, national dialogue.

NC: "A year ago, right after the federal budget was announced, there were extensive studies taken of people's opinion on the budget, which were very interesting. They were the inverse of the budget; so when the budget's going up, say with military spending, the large majority want it to go down. When it's going down, social spending and so on, a large majority want it to go up. One of those cases was renewable energy. The public wants sharply increased expenditures for renewable energy and decreased expenditures for things that are seriously harming the environment—like the military.

"Just to illustrate how our democracy works, there wasn't a single report that could be found at any newspaper in the country of those results. Now, that's the Lexis Nexus database of press, it doesn't cover everything. But here's a major study telling you what people think about the federal budget. Mainly that they want it to be the opposite of what it is, and the press is disciplined enough that it simply wasn't reported. What that means is that each individual person must think, "I'm alone, I'm some kind of a nut." They don't know that the overwhelming majority agrees with them, and that's important because if people know that they are right in the midst of an overwhelming majority, then they're much more likely to act. If they think they're isolated and alone, then they figure, "I can't do anything." (emphasis added)

I only have time to read a few snippets now, but bookmarked it for later.

I think it's of great interest - particularly to Democrats -who need to ask their Reps why so many of them seem unaware of what the majority want. Like National Health Care or decent wages or a meaningful safety net or or or...

I have some different opinions here:


BW: Based on the public opinion polls that we're hearing about low approval ratings for the president and Republicans, are you expecting a landslide victory for Democrats this fall?

NC: Not really, not at all. The reason is, the Democrats are not an opposition party. If there was a genuine opposition party in the United States, they would have been making hay the last year. Every week the Republicans shoot themselves in the foot with something—either a scandal, the war in Iraq, Hurricane Katrina or wiretapping. In fact, their popularity is going down, but the Democrats aren't making any gain. The only gain they're making is that the Bush administration and Republicans are less popular. But a genuine opposition party would be making enormous gains by putting forth alternatives. They don't. What is the Democratic alternative to health care? I don't know. They don't present anything; they never did. The so-called Clinton program was hopeless. It was so complicated you couldn't even figure out what it was.

My respoense: No programs from Dems? Well I see our chairmen blasting Bush every step of the way along with almost every elected representitive! A "genuine" opposition party doesn't have much chance when the media is slanted to the right.

Take for example the war on Iraq—it's very unpopular. Do the Democrats have any answer? Are they saying we should observe the will of the Iraqi population? No. In fact, they themselves supported the war. And so it is on every issue. They're somewhat different. I don't say the parties are identical, but the Democrats simply do not represent public opinion.

My Response:Well I think most elected Democrats are supporting at least a gradual decrease in troops from Iraq which is what the US public says they want.

Take for example tax cuts. You read in press that tax cuts are sacrosanct. If you look at public opinion, an overwhelming majority is in favor of rescinding Bush's tax cuts for people with incomes over $200,000. Well, that's the people who are making the gains. Is that a Democratic position? They won't come out in favor of that.

My response: Really!? Is that why Clinton put in a very progressive tax plan that was opposed by literally every single republican congressman?? Is that why Kerry campaigned on reversing Bush's tax cuts? Where is he getting this accusation from??