Its time to debate the merits of capitalism - and government

Republican candidate Romney criticizes president Obama and some other people as putting capitalism on trial for questioning what Bain Capital did or did not do. In politics, irrational thinking like that reveals how shallow and empty contemporary American political "debate" is. What passes for routine discourse from hard core democrats and republicans is mostly partisan spin and propaganda without much or any logic and fact to support the drivel. The spin machines on both sides are running in high gear.

'Christening' of the Fort Worth - littoral combat ship

Wisconsin - December 2010

There is nothing wrong with questioning capitalism and its strengths and weaknesses. That exercise is called free political speech. Conservatives revel in putting their mortal enemy, i.e., the U.S. government, on trial all the time. They do that to expose all sorts of evils, real and spun (imaginary). But for good reasons they will never explain, maybe because there are none, conservatives don't want anyone asking serious questions about their sacred cow, capitalism. That's the basically same kind of political hypocrisy we got when people who honestly questioned America's entry into the Iraq war were dismissed as traitors.

The reason Romney and most conservatives don't want a real inquiry into their pristine and perfect capitalism is that they know it's got some real nasty warts on it. There were very good reasons that antitrust laws were passed in the U.S. way back in 1890. Businesses fought against it, but they lost. Unrestrained capitalism is usually ruthless, heartless and typically has little or no concern for issues like the environment. Anything that stands in the way of maximum profits tends to get little or no consideration. Government is there to defend those interests, not capitalism. None of that is a criticism. Those things are just statements of fact. Conservatives would never admit any of this reality, so they spin or flat out deny needed to fit "reality" into their sacred ideology.

Japanese SH-60K landing on amphibious dock landing ship

USS Tortuga - Philippine Sea - December 2010

Common sense says that if capitalism was perfect and pure as its supporters would have us believe, they would have absolutely nothing to be concerned about from a fair, even-handed assessment of its pros and cons. Unfortunately, that's the rub. If the inquiry comes from the left, the inquiry won't be fair or even-handed. The same would true if the inquiry comes from the right. Hard core conservatives won't recognize any flaws in capitalism no matter how obvious any more than hard core liberals could fairly recognize obvious strengths.

And, while things are being put on trial, government itself should be reassessed in a fair and even-handed manner. Of course, that too is impossible if the reassessing comes from the hard core left and/or right, i.e., the politicians and parties in power today. What's missing in politics is a transparent, honest, pragmatic assessment that is unpolluted by the ever-present poisons of (i) political ideology, (ii) special interest money and (iii) political self-interest. It is profoundly unfortunate that a clean, intelligent debate on these issues is something we are not going to get despite the urgent and obvious need. As usual, politics as usual is going to keep average Americans in the dark and feed them something having a rather unpleasant smell and taste.