Fitzgerald = Revolution? Billmon says "probably not". (Parallels w/ Italy)

[StefanX]

Billmon's conclusion: "Without the political will to turn scandal into real change, even revolutionary change, prosecuting political corruption is almost an exercise in futility -- about as socially useful as running prostitutes and petty drug dealers through the courts over and over again. But that kind of will no longer exists on the center-left -- or, for that matter, in the American political system."

http://billmon.org/archives/001969.html

I think this is a very important (and sobering) article from Billmon - long but full of historical insights. He shows how the right wing was swept out of power in Italy and then came right back even stronger -- basically because prosecution isn't the same thing as revolution.

[KoKo]

1. Wow...it's a great read! Here are a couple more snips.

For the Democrats, the main lesson of Clean Hands should be clear -- they shouldn't expect the GOP's current ethical woes to sweep them into power, and even if it does, they shouldn't count on the public to support a reform agenda for very long. As I've pointed out before, the Republicans, as the pureblood party of capital, have a built-in advantage that will always allow them to bounce back -- probably without the need to adopt a new name based on a football slogan. Given a little down time, they'll soon be back at the center-left's throat.


A hypothetical (very hypothetical) Democratic Congress should be big on oversight -- as big as the Republican Congress was on scrutinizing every peccadillo (real or imagined) of the Clinton administration, except with a special focus on the last five years of GOP misrule. A hypothetical Democratic Justice Department should be prepared to support any investigations the FBI or the career prosecutors might choose to pursue. Hell, the Iraq reconstruction fiasco alone could keep an army of investigators busy for the next 10 years.

The political goal would be to keep the Republicans as off balance in their political exile as possible, and the leading members of the Vast Right Wing Conspiracy too worried about staying out of jail to spend much time making trouble. In other words, in the unlikely event that the Democrats get back in power, they should do exactly what the hysterical right is now irrationally accusing them of doing. (Although given the number of criminal leads created by the Rovians, it should be more a matter of unleashing the prosecutors rather than egging them on.)

[ReadTomPaine]

2. Yes it's on target. The Dems aren't pushing like the GOP in the 90's..

They just don't want it as badly as the GOP does. For whatever reason, they aren't ready to fight at the level or effort of the GOP.