"Conservative" to "Populist Demagogue"

A week ago Jim Webb was given as an example of how it was conservative Democrats who had won. Well in one short week Jim Webb has gone from a conservative to a Populist Demagogue. Webb makes his position clear in an Opinion Journal commentary today,
Class Struggle
American workers have a chance to be heard.

The most important--and unfortunately the least debated--issue in politics today is our society's steady drift toward a class-based system, the likes of which we have not seen since the 19th century. America's top tier has grown infinitely richer and more removed over the past 25 years. It is not unfair to say that they are literally living in a different country. Few among them send their children to public schools; fewer still send their loved ones to fight our wars. They own most of our stocks, making the stock market an unreliable indicator of the economic health of working people. The top 1% now takes in an astounding 16% of national income, up from 8% in 1980. The tax codes protect them, just as they protect corporate America, through a vast system of loopholes.

The Washington elite have continued to wonder why George W. Bush has not received credit for the "booming" economy. The reason of course is that for a majority of Americans the economy is not booming. Since the pundits and the "reporters" only talk to rich people they don't see it. Webb points out that this classification of America is not only unfair but dangerous.

More troubling is this: If it remains unchecked, this bifurcation of opportunities and advantages along class lines has the potential to bring a period of political unrest. Up to now, most American workers have simply been worried about their job prospects. Once they understand that there are (and were) clear alternatives to the policies that have dislocated careers and altered futures, they will demand more accountability from the leaders who have failed to protect their interests. The "Wal-Marting" of cheap consumer products brought in from places like China, and the easy money from low-interest home mortgage refinancing, have softened the blows in recent years. But the balance point is tipping in both cases, away from the consumer and away from our national interest.

We are seeing this political instability playing out just south of the border in Mexico. And yes it can not only happen here but has. Franklin Roosevelt's New Deal may be the only thing that prevented a Bolshevik type revolution in the United States.