The US Middle Class hasn’t gotten a raise during Tom Carper’s tenure in Congress
In 1988 when Tom Carper was cruising to an easy victory over James P. Krapf he had already gotten a few pay bumps on his way to being a multimillionaire with a lifetime sinecure in the US Senate. During the same period (1988 to today), the income of the median U.S. household has remained just under $52,000.
“Third Way” economics have been great for Carper – but terrible for the country. Tom Carper is an abject failure when considering what he’s been able to deliver to his constituents. His “centrist” economic philosophies have been an unmitigated disaster for the people who keep returning him to Washington. I can only assume that the reason he keeps winning is that he has the good fortune to pitted against Republicans in elections.
Think we can persuade Christine O’Donnell to switch parties and run against Carper next primary?
Carpers road to fortune and glory is more about beltway politics than third way politics.
Tappin a dry well here Kavips. Other than complaining about Carper here, this blog doesn’t “do” anything when it comes to him.
lol. “Other than complaining..” Like complaining is nothing.
This is related:
No shit. Unless you are a 1%er – there has been no recovery.
I’m still waiting on SA here to start a blog that *will* do something about Carper. How’s that coming?
Complaining isn’t getting the job done. It rarely does.
Doing something about Carper will require more than just a blog. This site proves that.
No shit. So go ahead a do something. It is a free country. As for me – the six-year terms makes Carper (and all Senators who want to stay in the job) impervious to any criticism.
I, along with other progressive types, actually met with Carper once to lay out the leftward criticism and ask if he could act a little more like a Democrat. That meeting and his response (basically, a big shrug) was a turning point for me. If the guy doesn’t have to even pretend to be interested in concerns of his constituents, what’s the point?
Doing something about Carper will require more than just a blog.
Then let us know when you get *that* going. Maybe you’ll prove useful after all.
If the guy doesn’t have to even pretend to be interested in concerns of his constituents, what’s the point?
That was kind of his point, I think, jason–you are not his constituent from his point of view.
Steve – After all these years that realization just hit me as I was writing my last comment. I’m a part of a crazy minority pining for FDR. I’m a Green Party voter for all he cares, sitting on his 60% approval rating and two million dollar campaign war-chest.
“Then let us know when you get *that* going.”
Been there. Done that. Met with cynical derision. Moving on.
The other side managed to unseat an entrenched politician. If you are convinced you are going to fail, then you already have. All the progressives seem to have a similar conclusion on Carper. “Meh, whaddya gonna do?” and give him a pass. Lift a finger in a primary? “meh, I have better things to do.” Even mention a third party candidate as a protest vote? “Not on your life!”
To Carper you don’t count if all you ever do is blog about it or meet with him once. If you met with him once. Do it again. Can’t win if you don’t show up. And it often takes several attempts to make progress, show you are serious and numbers of interested parties would grow.
Meh. I think I’ll take the cynical derision, and call it a day.
Could the same complaint could be made about virtually every member of Congress?
Every member of Congress does not pretend to represent Delaware.
And if the criticism could be leveled at every member of Congress, that would make it untrue? What’s with your constant valentines to this undistinguished sap?
The one percenters rule the Dem Party.
To hold onto the quaint notion the the Democratic Party fights for “the little guy” identifies you as a crazy person.
The Dem’s “Fool” not “Fight” for the middle class.
The far left and the far right are not where the majority of voters reside. The US population is for the most part center/right and this is where Democrats have positioned themselves. The Republicans move to the far right over the last 35 years has left the middle to the Democrats. Republicans can only win reactionary states and gerrymandered districts. A political animal like Carper sees this clearly and has set up camp with no incentive to move.
Brock Landers is half right. The US is “center/right” is so much as that is the label that seems to suit most people who are called by Gallup. When you ask them about policies instead of labels, America is much more center/left than center/right.
This is a well known fact that has been established time and again. Luckily, I never expect the things like facts to influence political discussions.
I don’t currently see liberals or Democrats as far left. I don’t think there is a real far left in this country. The Democrat liberal left doesn’t even push on economic issues and that’s where the real stuff is. It’s all perspective and how one defines things though.
If I were to make a fine distinction I would probably call myself center/right. In reality though I am probably more center/left. But I don’t usually make such a distinctions. I am really just a centrist – really a pragmatic, incrementalist.
I recognize that there is a significant inequality in income but am torn between mandating a living wage and a recognition that supply and demand in context of labor is a factor in wages that are paid. I have seen how labor shortages drive up wages and generally resist efforts to artificially set wages that are not supported by the marketplace.
Generally, I believe that we have too many low wage workers and would like to decrease that supply of labor, which may serve to increase wages. One of the ways I think that we could get there is to increase focus of education, especially vocational education in specialties where there are real shortages and provide a means for people to earn while they learn so they can live while giving them a hand up.
When it comes to something like health care, I’m on the side of universal health care because it promotes the general welfare and just may be a means to control the cost of health care (scare tactics about rationing aside). So I guess I’m a little left of the spectrum on that as well.
Regardless, I’m not sure one would call that a left or right idea and honestly, I don’t care. I often think that there is too much attention paid to what’s left or right and not on what works or doesn’t work. That’s why I am kind of a proud pragmatist.
I agree with mouse. We don’t have a “left” left in American politics. It would be an interesting autopsy to perform at some point…. Reagan, Bill Clinton, NAFTA, the GOP’s Southern Strategy, Ralph Nader, the end of the Cold War, Fox News, Daily Kos…. WTF happened?
Dave, you are are rare breed. Currently we are dealing with a long term labor glut which is the natural result of not having an industrial policy.
We have a long term labor glut because we don’t need laborers in manufacturing anymore. Mechanization will continue to eliminate jobs, computers are starting to replace people in more occupations — long-term, we will be able to produce as much as we do now with half the workers.
Think about what’s going to happen once self-driving cars are perfected. That’s six million truckers — don’t need lots of education for that job — out of work. We have three million out of work permanently now.
Trade agreements sped this up, but this county, and capitalist countries around the world, are going to have to come up with new ways to cut up the pie, because work-for-pay is only going to be able to support about half of society.
@jason: Currently we are dealing with a long term labor glut which is the natural result of not having an industrial policy.
I’d argue that we have had an industrial policy, written for us by banks and other large corporations. They are the ones who benefit directly from a labor glut mitigated just enough by government services to keep low-level workers barely above starvation (but still able to buy luxuries on time).
@geezer: We have a long term labor glut because we don’t need laborers in manufacturing anymore. Mechanization will continue to eliminate jobs
I’d argue that you’re right here as far as you go, but that you don’t go far enough. More significant than self-driving trucks will be truly effective (and affordable) 3-D printing, which may well lead to both a decentralization and a significant demonetization of the economy. I don’t mean to make that sound like some libertarian utopia–I think the dislocations it causes will be huge, but at the other end you do have the potential for more self-sustaining communities that produce a far greater percentage of their own necessary goods than has heretofore been possible. But, like any paradigm shift, it’s pretty damn difficult to see how it plays out from this side of the change.
Jason, I do some work with the Boys and Girls Club of Delaware, and if you have worked with them, odds are, you have met Martha Carper. Mrs. Carper is Delaware’s former First Lady and a brilliant woman. Whatever wealth that Tom Carper has, he has because of the fact that his wife is a retired DuPont executive and a UD professor, who is worth millions in DuPont stock on her own. Martha Carper brought home the bacon for years while her husband made the political rounds. When you look at financial disclosure forms, they ask for household financial information, not individual. I think it is borderline sexist to look at a financial disclosure form and assume that only the male is responsible for the family’s financial gains. Tom Carper, like John Kerry, married into money. Something that all men should strive for.
@J “We don’t have a “left” left in American politics. It would be an interesting autopsy to perform at some point….”
You want an autopsy? Just follow the money.
The true “left” (and true libertarian) are the natural enemies of rent seeking organizations. But virtually ALL big money in politics is now from rent seeking organizations. And these same organizations influence the mass media.
And in today’s political climate, you cannot win without big money and an unfriendly media.
Here’s something to ponder… How many trillions of $$$ of damage has Fox News done since its inception?
I wonder if the middle class hate driven rubes who suck up Fox understand that it is the policies advocated by Fix news that has gutted the middle class..Guess they are too busy resenting some minority woman who gets too many slices of American cheese for her kids at the WIC office to look any deeper
How many millions of former American jobs are now performed by Chinese children and prisoners? Why is this never an issue? Its immoral and hurting millions of people here.
Or we could sum it up as America is a deeply corrupt country, democracy doesn’t work very well for most of us and plutocrats are tightening their grip with the aid of Tom Carper and many others. There is no easy answer, and that many Americans remain politically ignorant makes it far worse. I have no answer, no one does, but unless we come together things are on course to be much worse.
@b “I have no answer, no one does,”
Campaign finance reform. We need to stop making is so easy to buy congressmen. That’s the very heart of the corruption.
Carper=Crony Capitalism just like most Republicans