Tuesday, September 23, 2008

Bailouts and jellyrolls

Back in my doctoral program days, a revered professor liked to make the observation that the object of our study--rhetorical theory, rhetorical practice--was like a jellyroll: Slice it one way and you get stripes; slice it another way and you get spirals.

Glenn Greenwald, citing David Sirota, reminds us that the same is true of the discourse in our country:

Slice it one way, the way that the major parties and the media prefer, and you get Democrats versus Republicans (or Blue States versus Red States).

Slice it the other way, though, and you get Plutocrats (or Kleptocrats) versus Populists.

Just because your Senator or Congressperson might be a Democrat, don't trust them to do the right thing on the $700 billion bailout proposal. Call their office and tell them that (a) you're pissed, (b) you're not interested in bailing out arrogant or greedy CEOs without getting something substantial in return, and (c) you're in a seriously voting mood.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

If we really wanted to do something that would effectively help the foreclosure crisis we'd be giving the $700 billion to homeowners not corporations.