Sunday, November 29, 2009

The Real Meaning of "Not Politically Feasible"


Noam Chomsky addressed an issue I"ve been meaning to write about for a while: what it really means when a political pundit says that something is "not politically feasible".

Chomsky explains that "not politically feasible" means that the powers-that-be don"t want it, even if the people overwhelmingly and passionately support it:

Up until the year 2004, that idea was described, for example, by the New York Times as politically impossible and lacking political support. So, maybe the public wants it, but that�s not what counts as political support. The financial institutions are opposed, the pharmaceutical institutions are opposed, so it�s not�no political support...

This is very revealing insight into how American democracy functions and what is meant by the term �political support� and �politically possible.� Again, this should be headlines. Will a proposal come that approaches what the public wants?...

It is not politically possible and lacks political support�[no one important wants it, ] just the population...
Chomsky was talking about healthcare, but this applies to every other area of politics as well.

For example, after the TARP bailouts were exposed as a waste of money which did not address the real economic problems, I saw a tv news pundit say that the bailouts were a bad idea, but at the time, "it was not politically feasible" to do anything else. I bet you"ve heard similar things said about any constructive proposal which would address the real problems with our economy.

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