"Beyond Outrage" by Robert Reich

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Published on Coffee Party (http://www.coffeepartyusa.com) Home > Blogs > bksears's blog > Printer-friendly PDF Book Club Reviews "Beyond Outrage" by Robert Reich Sun, 05/06/2012 - 7:15pm — bksears by Barb Bull, Coffee Party Book Club Several years ago, I had the satisfying experience of analyzing some important and confusing policy issue in an economics class. I must have demanded to know why the policy issue remained unresolved, now knowing that a clear solution was available because I remember my professor?s answer verbatim to this day: ?Because we haven?t figured out the bumper sticker yet.? More recently, I often find myself confused again like Alice in Wonderland about various policy issues. Are taxes too big or too small? Is America a giant too big to be sustained by a weaker global economy or so small we?re in danger of being washed away by changing currents? Once again an economics professor has taken the time to provide the data and the pathway to understanding what lies below the political confusion; and this time he has made significant progress toward some bumper stickers that we can use to get us to solutions. Like Larry Lessig, Robert Reich published two books recently; one thoroughly-researched and documented encyclopedic description of our current place in social history (discussed in Coffee Party Radio here); and a second shorter book (ebook in Lessig?s case) appropriately shortened for a broader audience, updated to relate to real-time politics, and complete with action items. All four are important works for engaged citizens ready to participate in the historic change many of us have come to believe this country needs. Where Lessig provides historical legal context and current specific examples intimately describing the nature of the corruption we currently live with, Reich provides the data and the economic narrative necessary to expose for all to see and comprehend, just how far from the historical and international mainstream our current tax and financial policies have turned. Both of these well- established, highly-acclaimed scholars have lent their surely scarce time and credentials to narratives too-often mischaracterized as fringe and extreme by today?s ?mainstream media.? Furthermore, they have gone to the trouble to reduce the rigor of academic works to accessible pieces for the wider audience who must understand our time in order to participate effectively in it. Apparent by the titles, neither of these most recent works is subtle about what they mean to achieve. Reich?s Beyond Outrage: What Has Gone Wrong with Our Economy and Our Democracy, and How to Fix It (Published in the United States by Alfred A. Knopf, a division of Random House, Inc.) consists of three parts: ?The Rigged Game,? ?The Rise of the Regressive Right,? and ?[Beyond Outrage:] What You Need to Do.? Lessig?s One Way Forward, The Outsider?s Guide to Fixing the Republic begins artfully reminding us that spring is when we all naturally ?wake up? and ends with a plan complete with work tasks for citizens and networks. While Lessig speaks from his post-partisan, we-must-do-what-we-can- regardless- of-the- prognosis serious yet entertaining and effectively distilled perspective, Reich maintains a more familiar somewhat partisan frame, yet manages to provide important factual supports for the emerging narrative and advice even for post-partisan organizers and activists like ourselves. As if he were personally responsible for the trial of our political system, Lessig lays out in crystal clear detail gaping failures of our government and the perverted dynamics that increasingly make failure the rule rather than the exception. Lessig provides the metaphorical lay of the land, pointing a way forward through the political wilderness by reminding us to pause from hacking at Thoreau?s branches of evil, to find and focus on the roots, and to strike at them. Reich invites us to step outside of our ideological bubbles, to find common moral ground with those who might travel in different circles. He suggests that we all may need to shed our ?issue cocoons? and seek out the roots that Lessig and Thoreau have identified, and to work on those together with people who may disagree with us on other issues. For those of us inclined to cling to climate change, or health care, or even human rights as the most important issue of our time, Lessig affirms that the work of holding our system accountable to people rather than money is not the most important issue before us, merely the first problem that we must all work together to solve in order to have any hope of resolving the many important issues that we all know have remained inexplicably unsolvable for too long. Both authors agree that the current system no longer serves the people, that changing the system will require working with people we may not think we agree with, and we probably even need to expand or change the issues we are working on so that the issues that brought us to the work can be addressed as well. Both authors also agree that the current administration has failed to meet the challenge, and support the idea that the Constitution needs amending in order to get what we need. Thankfully, having identified the work, both authors provide the possibly overwhelmed and under-organized activist (speaking for myself) a few ready- made tools (listed below) for compelling the system to return to its rightful purpose. Reich reminds us of two things: that we must pace ourselves in this work as we would for a marathon to protect from burn-out, and that we must not countdown to election days like a young couple might count down 9 months of pregnancy as if the work will be done on the day of the big event. We must learn that for appropriately engaged citizens, a successful election is just the beginning. So even if you come from a more traditionally conservative point of view (as Lessig himself originally did), I personally believe you would find great value in Lessig?s fastidiously neutral analysis of our flawed political system. And if you can look beyond Reich?s unnecessarily partisan treatment of issues and allow him to remove the corporate looking-glass view of our economy to reveal the more appropriate public/citizen-oriented perspective, hopefully you will find some of the common ground many of us have been looking for and we can all be empowered to write the bumper stickers, serve the coffee, and work together to re-awaken America to the greatness we know she is capable of. Rules of Engagement: We reserve the right to moderate this blog according to our values, which include respecting and embracing diverse opinions and diverse backgrounds. There are plenty of blogs and websites where partisanship, unfounded conspiracy theories, and intentional insults poison the environment. We'd like for our blog to be an alternative to that approach. We ask that participants not to hide behind anonymity, and be as polite and as responsible as they would be if they were speaking in a public forum and their mother might see them on the news. Those who come to this blog to deface it with ugliness and rancor will have their profiles put into moderation as a warning, and then deleted for a second offense. Source URL: http://www.coffeepartyusa.com/content/book-club-reviews-beyond-outrage-robert-reich.
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