Saturday, August 2, 2008

Bill Moyers

Bob and I watched Bill Moyers show last night on PBS. I watch a lot of PBS because I feel it comes the closest to not being biased news.

I admire Bill Moyers because he seems to dig up the stuff we all would miss if we relied on network news. Last night it was about Jack Abramoff and all the dirty tricks he and his group of "young Republicans" pulled to keep slave labor quiet in the Mariannas during the Bush years. It was very interesting. I wonder how many readers watched it?

When I hear of such stuff, I am ashamed that I am a registered Republican.

He talked to Thomas Frank about his new book, "The Wrecking Crew".

Frank said, "There are other forms of corruption that are particular to liberalism, and that occur more naturally among Democrats. But by and large, the particular mode of corruption I describe in this book is a Republican invention. True believers in the free-market way invented it and feel most comfortable in it. Most Democrats can be embarrassed by their relationship to lobbyists because publicly they pretend to be the "party of the people"; most Republicans are happy to say they believe in market-based government.

Moyers asks "Who are the real casualties of THE WRECKING CREW?

It's ordinary working people. Thirty or forty years ago, it was possible to work a blue-collar job and enjoy a middle-class standard of living. In fact, it was common. It was the American way. The reason it was so common, though, was because we decided to make it that way and used government as our instrument. That instrument is no longer under our control. Someone else is at the wheel, and they're steering us in a different direction. So can good little liberals go to bed at night now and sleep soundly knowing the Good Democrats have slain the monsters and reclaimed the castle?

No. Unfortunately, the system I describe is part of the landscape in Washington now. It's structural. It's an industry. It's not going down without an enormous fight. Besides, rather than putting away this very profitable game, a lot of Democrats seem excited to try their hand at it."

Politics...seems to be a dirty game. I am ready for someone honest...if there is such an animal.

2 comments:

Judy said...

I like Bill Moyers, too, but I can't get his show on my t.v. My Bob doesn't like him and thinks he is too cocky but I think he tells it like it is and he is funny, too.

Margie's Musings said...

I think he is very honest. The best thing he ever did was a wonderful series with Joseph Campbell called "The Power of Myth" and that's been twenty years ago.