Adios Bill

"Progressive" icon and muckraking journalist Bill Moyers quietly announced his retirement yesterday, posting a few farewell words on his website about "protecting our fragile democracy." Bill had the kind of media exposure and bully pulpit a pundit can only dream about; PBS funding and Foundation funding and op-eds in any major publication he wanted. And after all those decades of influence- his life in the public sphere goes back to the Johnson administration of the early sixties- what is the state of "populist progressivism" now? How about the labor movement he so tirelessly championed? Those "Great Society" values he promoted?

Yeah. I know it is mean (and heretical) to criticize good old Bill after all his dedication and service but if "the humans" wish to see any kind of society in the next century, we need to take an honest look at what he was in service TO exactly. Unflinchingly. Along with other media stalwarts such as Robert Reich, Jim Hightower, Paul Krugman, Jeffrey Sachs, Eric Alterman, John Nichols, R. Mc Chesney, A. Bacevitch, Thom Hartman, the whole MSNBC crew, Moyers relentlessly pushed for a light social democratic program based on economic growth with a growing middle class and a caring welfare system for those less fortunate. He pushed for New Deal "re-distribution", basically a perpetual re-action against "conservatism" or economic "libertarianism" and even neo-liberalism, though that term was a bit far into the "ideological" deep end for most liberals to wade into. All these people carried water for the Democrats while gently scolding the Third Way craven fealty to Wall Street.

Basically, if Bill mentioned a critique of capitalism it was always qualified with an adjective, "crony" capitalism, "predatory" capitalism, "corporate" capitalism etc.. What he promoted instead was "capitalism with a human face" an American Sweden with strong unions and a tiny military and great schools and healthcare etc. etc. ... but something was always thwarting these idyllic policies...some strange human failing like greed, or corruption, or racism...or some nefarious force like FOX news or the Koch brothers or big corporations...or some bad decisions like Citizen United or Shock and Awe or drilling in the arctic. But capitalism could work for all if only it was a bit kinder and gentler. If only it was regulated, governed democratically, constitutionally, the new order could bring full employment and sustainable prosperity.

The dark side of this "progressive" program is the subtle way it excluded, even demonized, radical thought. By that I mean anti-capitalist. As the chosen gate-keepers, these progressives silenced dissent from the left using fear and ridicule; too utopian, too divisive, too dogmatic (maybe even totalitarian!) too unwilling to compromise and accommodate, too antagonistic. So take a look around and ask yourself, as Bill retires into the long twilight, how did that work out for you?