Webb: Emergence Of A Populist Demagogue

Senator Elect Jim Webb has decided to jump out of the shadows via the Opinion Journal, the piece is as frightening as it is silly and antiquated. You can almost hear the chants of grimy workers marching in the streets shouting Solidarność beneath the sound of Webb's keyboard.

Class Struggle American workers have a chance to be heard.

Furthermore, an unspoken insinuation seems to be inundating our national debate: Certain immigrant groups have the "right genetics" and thus are natural entrants to the "overclass," while others, as well as those who come from stock that has been here for 200 years and have not made it to the top, simply don't possess the necessary attributes.

What a strange man. I think he projects an evident racism into everything. I'm certainly unaware of any genetic group predisposed to poverty. What is most frightening about this type of demagogy is that it can be very attractive to those looking for easy answers to complex problems. And the result is inevitably socialism, if not communism.

Webb dismisses the possibility that perhaps our education system is failing - the reason so much tech-savvy talent ends up coming to America from abroad these days. And he mentions illegal immigrants at least three times without the slightest nod to facing that problem, seeing it perhaps as just a symptom of upper class oppression against his mythical back woods Scottish ancestors. Yes, this fellow seems more than just a bit myopic.

It should be the first order of business for the new Congress to begin addressing these divisions, and to work to bring true fairness back to economic life. Workers already understand this, as they see stagnant wages and disappearing jobs.

Fairness? What a wonderful characterization for re-distribution of wealth. The problem is, where does one begin and end once you begin slipping away from a market philosophy for labor. Will the government decide who should be paid what so we all end up in some G 1-12 system like the one Webb first experienced in the military?

Webb hearkens back to the sixties and seventies as a more balanced time for American labor. Here's a memory - I had an uncle, a few in fact, who made very good livings in the steel industry. On top of having every benefit one could imagine, I remember how happy one uncle was while enjoying his seventeen weeks of vacation over the summer - a special union perk enjoyed for certain anniversaries. He sometimes bragged of how in many cases an 8 hour shift amounted to no more than 4 hours of actual work. As a result, at least in part, we have no steel industry today. I wonder how fair and whose fault Webb thinks that is?

He bemoans the loss of manufacturing without understanding that the last thing America wants to be is the greatest factory for the world. I wonder if Webb himself believes certain peoples are incapable of keeping up with the world intellectually and are doomed to poverty unless we entertain significant direct government intervention in the labor market. If not, you would think a fellow like Webb would be championing personal fulfillment through hard work and more and better education.

Clearly Webb is a very passion-driven man - he seems sort of a cross between Ernest Hemmiway and Karl Marx. That may be a good thing in a novelist and a war-fighter. In a legislator with the ability to tinker with America's economic system, not so much. We can credit the Washington Post for propping up Webb's stealth campaign for our only finding out now how romantically foolish this man is when it comes to economics.

Webb is good at seeing the divides in things. I'll give him that. I hope for America's sake, he isn't as good at exploiting them for political gain.

Comments

[Phoenix]

Nice analysis. I'm delighted Webb won because I saw Allen as just another candle on the birthday cake. Webb will be that one candle that can't be blown out despite looking as if it's out, it re-ignites over and over.

The thing about a guy like Webb, he's seen it all, and he's developed a romanticized view of the world. Because of his creative abilities, his mind is always working and rearranging his view of the world. A quick glance at his turncoat history proves that. Read his novels and you know his mind misses no detail.

But what makes him special is that he'll be the bully on the block because dreamers cum realists like him cannot be bought. His candle will burn fiercely and for the trouble that will cause, hallelujah.....

[chris]

I guess millionaire Webb feels like a poor relation as he rubs elbows with the mega multi-millionaire crowd like Kennedy, Rockefeller, Pelosi, Feinstein et al. Even that little runt, Reid, has more millions than Jimbo.

His WSJ piece reveals an incoherent and dark view of his fellow citizens. Like his pseudo intellectual "Born Fighting", his latest "analysis" consists of little but a mix of myth, historical inaccuracies and lecturing served up with a big chip that fell off his shoulder.

Little sign of an active, inquiring mind. His was made up long, long ago. What ever he thinks or does is right and if he thinks differently 10 minutes from now, he is still right.

[Pat]

Riehl, your uncle(s) are proof positive of what ails our auto industry. Auto workers get full pay, even when on layoff status, not to mention pensions and health care that would make even a Senator blush.

I keep reading about these "moderate" Dems that unseated Repubs this election. I'm beginning to doubt that. The media just kept their real positions hidden until after the election.

[Phoenix]

Unions will soon be a thing of the past. Just get rid of the NEA. With the economy the way it is and unemployment at 4.4, it behooves any employer to do the right thing..... and any worker who has it in him to do the right thing to get ahead in the marketplace without the help of a union. sigh.... that sounds like some stupid wishful Utopia..

If only.

[Jim Miller]

Well, we may not want to be the "greatest factory for the world" -- but we are. The value of our manufactures is still way above Japan's, which is the nearest competitor.