Welcome Back To The LET THEM EAT CAKE Economy

Scott Rosenberg nails it with his wonderful piece on FCC Chairman Powell's girlish shock and dismay that others in this country might oppose his heavy-handed inside-the-beltway plutocratic powers by actually organizing a grass-roots effort counter to his wishes. Check this out:

"Here we have it: a "concerted grass-roots effort"! What a horrible thing! I think this is the first time in my life I have heard the term "grass-roots" used in a negative way. To most of us, "grass-roots" symbolizes healthy organizing of the citizenry beyond the corrupting influence of big business lobbying and entrenched interests. It is our democracy at its best. To Powell, somehow, it has become a term of opprobrium.

It couldn't possibly be that his policy was so absurdly wrong for today's United States that it managed to unite the liberals at Moveon.org and the NRA against it. Nah. It must be a grass-roots conspiracy! Like so many others in the Bush administration, Powell seems to feel that his ideology is beyond public accountability. With Bush's poll numbers sinking week by week, these public servants may eventually learn just how wrong they are."

I have to say I was in Washington DC for SuperNova Conference this summer and a veritable police line-up of FCC mucky-mucks who report to Powell were there spouting bullshit on a panel I had to listen to. My take-away was the same as Scott's -- DO THESE GUYS HAVE A CLUE? At one point, one them said in the most patronizing way that they'd be happy to hear what those "outside the beltway" thought about FCC policy. My response in July was close to vomitting, honestly. It was clear the patronizing tone was all about not giving a shit what those outside the beltway had to say.

I'm seeing this more and more everywhere I go. They said a tiny little problem the French had before the French Revolution was the elite having eradicated the middle class. It made things a little bit unstable. It polarized people a tiny bit, un petite peu, quoi. And next thing you know, you have a queen who allegedly doesn't "get" why everyone is rioting for a crust of bread and she says, "Why can't they just eat fancy little petit-fours like us, we've got platters and platters of the stuff here at the chateau." Whether she actually said this or not, the extremes of rich and poor in any country make for some very interesting dynamics.

I know so many people out of work and I'm noticing a subtle thing now about this. People who are working find it more and more difficult to know how to react, connect or simply communicate with all their unemployed friends. There is a gigantic divide happening now -- we're watching just what Bush wanted to have happen -- the end of the middle class as we knew it. It's gone. But all those unemployed folks are sure going to have a lot of time in the next year to shape this election. Fasten your seatbelts guys and look forward to the fun. We're building a heck of a roller coaster.