US capitalism mired in crisis as banks and corporations hoard cash.

One thing the elections have settled is that the issue of the Republican right, particularly the Tea Bagger crowd, will have to be dealt with. There is concern among the capitalist class about the level of conflict and confrontation in society. Capitalism appreciates best a stable environment. Throwing money in to circulation is risky enough as it is without social conflict and one of the reasons the corporations are “Sitting on so much cash” or “hoarding cash” as financial analyst Meredith Whitney says in the latest Business Week issue, is uncertainty. Capitalists hate uncertainty. (See, there's plenty of money)

As we have pointed out in earlier blogs, while the Tea Baggers have support from some sections of big business, the elections are over and the dominant capitalist forces need to get back to a more stable environment for profit making. The right wing is cause for concern; after all, Tea Party statements that, “Large corporations are leeches sucking the blood of the people”, “Corporations should not be at the public trough”, or that GE is an “opportunistic parasite feeding on the expansion of government” do not go down too well with the ruling class of America. They were somewhat acceptable as a means of tapping in to the anger at the Democrat's betrayal of their promises to worker and the middle class two years ago but the election is over already.

Jon Meachem, the bourgeois strategist, reveals the concerns of the more sober sections of US capitalism at the fractured state of politics. There is a “political culture” he writes in Business Week, “in which we bounce from one party to another and from one issue to another like so many bumper cars at a state fair.” “We are living in a frenetic political period”, he adds.

He offers a bit of a history lesson to his peers, reminding them as Thomas Jefferson did in his 1801 inaugural address that, “..not every difference of opinion is a difference of principal.”. The political situation is worse than it was in 1980 or 1990 Meachem warns. We must unite the class, there is nothing in principal that divides us is his message. He warns what he calls “extremists” in both capitalist parties to “calm down”, the left Democrats and the right wing Republicans. A dangerous situation exists he warns when only 21% of the American population are satisfied with the way things are going in the country. He attacks the “extreme” left and right and quotes political scientist Richard Hofstadter who wrote in November 1964 during the contentious struggle between Goldwater and Johnson about the “paranoid style in American politics” and that the “paranoid” is a "militant leader” that doesn’t see “social conflict as something to be mediated and compromised in the manner of the working politician.” Unlike the working politician, what is always at stake for the “paranoid” is “..the will to fight things out to the finish.”

The right bothers Meachem not so much because they pose a real threat at this point. The concern is the potential power and militant, rich history of struggle of the US working class and how the right might awaken it. The US bourgeois are afraid, as are the Union leaders, of the potential power of the US working class. What’s all the fighting about is what he is really asking his peers to consider? “The partisan clamor with which we live is not commensurate with the actual distinctions between the two parties.”

Obama has been good to us, he reminds them:
“We have a Democratic president who has increased the projection of US force in Afghanistan, rescued the financial sector, and cut taxes for 95% of working families. (And, who by the way, has little time for such issues as marriage equality or gun control.”

In contrast, he adds, “We have a Republican Party whose last President created vast deficits, grew government, and who, in crisis, all but nationalized the banks.” C'mon guys, there's no need to squabble he pleads.

I know nothing about Jon Meachem but he is a Democrat I would say. He is trying to get the Republican’s to think clearly about Obama’s record. In the health care dispute they need to “Remember that the bill Obama signed did not mandate universal coverage---a central progressive cause for more than a century.” He is trying to reach across to the main stream Republicans to get their house in order, get the right wing crazies under control and get back to the business of business. He is concerned enough to hint that in politics, Americans need not be satisfied with “two brands” there is “clearly room for an independent force.”

Meachem is not talking about an independent Labor or workers’ party here. In his commentary there is no mention of workers, trade Unions or organized Labor in any way. He is making it clear that if the two capitalist parties can’t stop their bickering there is hope for a third capitalist alternative. Unfortunately for liberals like Meachem, they are always trying to make peace when there is need for war. The conservatives do not respond well to their olive branches. For the conservatives, the response to weakness is further aggression. As George Shultz said, “He who walks in the middle of the road gets hit from both sides.” That’s the response the conservatives have to liberals like Meachem.

No one can be clear what will happen over the next few years but what is certain is that the elections have ensured there will be continued crisis and conflict and that the working class will fight back, the class war will break more in to the open. As we pointed out in an earlier blog, all sources left and right show that the platform of the elected does not correspond to the mood in society; and there are millions more who will move in to struggle at some point.

The US is suffering deep economic and political crisis. It is in conflict with its own working class, a conflict it is forced to intensify. It is conflict with its rivals as it heads in to next week’s G20 meeting in Seoul where its attempts to undermine the dollar to increase competitiveness have met with severe criticism from China, Germany and others. The election is over, but as Meachem says, “The jobless will still be jobless, the poor will still be impoverished and our competitiveness will still be in peril.”

This is an explosive mix.