infobong.com

Over on The Nation's Website is a wide-ranging feature aptly titled, "Rolling Back the 20th Century," which integrates many of the Bush regime's initiatives from school vouchers to ending dividend taxes, into an overall framework of dismantling many of the inroads made by progressives in the last century.

The article touches on one of the facets of the conservative movement that's befuddled me, the alliance between seemingly heartless business types and people of faith. The article notes, "the right has created the political mechanics that allow these disparate elements to pull together. Greider says, "Cosmopolitan corporate executives hold their noses and go along with Christian activists trying to stamp out "decadent" liberal culture."

I'm reminded of a passage in H.G. Bissinger's Friday Night Lights, which details the high school football culture in Odessa, Texas. In one passage, Bissinger details how George H.W. Bush visits the West Texas community on a campaign stop, greeted by overwhelming support. The author then notes the irony that Bush and Reagan actions did more to dismantle the oil industry in the town than anyone else. I heartily recommend Friday Night Lights: I read when I lived in Philly, and I remember sitting on the train crying and angry, as it reminded me of the football hegemony at Jenks High School.

Anyway, Naomi Klein has an article in The Guardian that, in part, presents a future I'd like to see. The No Logo author describes how seamstresses in Argentina seized control of their plant and kept it running after the owners couldn't pay their bills and subsquently abandoned the operations.