The Uh-Ohs

It's the New Year, and I'm celebrating by coming back to work after a three-month sabbatical from CAF. After four years of pretty consistent blogging, I needed some distance, some time to pursue a few errant passions, and the chance to recover my focus. As of this week, I'm back on the job with a fistful of new insights and research, and a head full of fresh things to blog about. It's genuinely good to be back, which is a clear sign that the break was a) needed and b) long enough.

For the last couple of weeks, the blogs and papers have been full of pieces about the turn of the decade, with due regard to signs and portents for what the last decade's disasters all meant, and what glories and horrors await us in the one now ahead. Since this kind of navel-gazing about change and meaning and the future are what I do, I suppose it's incumbent on me to devote my first couple of homecoming posts to this topic. Given that it's now January 13 and the prognostication rush is mostly over, I might even claim to be the final word on the subject.

So, here it is, in two parts. This week: A look back. Next week: A look ahead.

* * *

The specific events that made the Uh-Ohs a pluperfect catastrophe have already been well-covered by able commentators (some at this very blog), so I'm going to sidestep any attempt to catalogue them further. (No doubt you can sing them all, anyway, verse and chorus, in four-part harmony.) What interests me now is what this decade of social, economic, and political abuse -- really, there's no other word for it -- did to us psychologically.

More »»

If you were among the wealthiest 1-2% of Americans, it was the best of times. For the rest of us, it was "The Uh-Ohs," a decade of conservative failure and its aftermath. From the government surplus in 2000 and the ill-advised and poorly planned wars that helped transform it into a deficit, to the stagnant economy and growing economic inequality we face today — none of it just happened and none of had to happen.

It was all consciously chosen — a direct consequence of conservative politics and policymaking — and about 99% of us are worse for it.

More »»

Forget about "the Aughts." Never mind "the Naughts." The decade just passed — and which promises to leave a lingering, bitter aftertaste — deserves a far better, more descriptive name. So for what it's worth, I hereby dub the past ten years "The Uh-Ohs: A Decade of Conservative Failure."

More »»