The "Gimme" Society v. The Disappearing Middle Class

Wow.

Walter Russell Mead wrote a barnburner.  He's envisioning the 'end of the blue coalition.'

...A series of trials now underway in the Bronx reveal the harsh truth of embedded corruption and contempt for the public at the heart (if that is the right word) of the New York City police union.

That's one part of the 'blue coalition':  the public-employee union(s).  During a demonstration the police union organized, which vilified the Bronx D.A. and his investigation, Part Two of the 'blue coalition' was under attack, too--by the cops.

...the Times was deeply shocked and troubled by what it saw.  Policemen booing and cursing prosecutors and officers of the court?  Open solidarity with lawbreakers? But it was even worse.  Across the street from the courthouse is a “benefits center.” When the crowd lined up to collect welfare payments started chanting “Fix our tickets!” at the protesting cops, the cops responded with derisory chants of “EBT! EBT” (electric benefits transfer, a popular method of making social support payments here in the blue paradise of the northeast).

Then Mead ID's Part Three:  loosely speaking, the blue half of the "Ruling Class."

the good government, pro-minority Times reporters,

....whose interests are (loosely):

...Money and power for the government enable the upper middle class good government types to dream up new schemes to help us all live better lives and give government the resources for the various social, ecological and cultural transformations on the ever-expandable goo-goo to-do list that range from a global carbon tax to fair trade coffee cooperatives and the war on saturated fat.

And then, there's Part Four, which is not so much 'blue' as 'green' (the color of money.)

...Blue Wall Street: the bankers, financiers and business leaders who thrive in the world of the blue social model — and who likely have never visited a criminal court or a benefits center in their lives.

...The symbiosis between Blue Wall Street and the state is strong and deep. The pension funds, bond issues and other financial transactions that blue city and state governments need helps nourish Blue Wall Street; Blue Wall Street helps integrate the policy agenda of other government focused interest groups with larger national priorities and movements.  Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are the archetypes of this symbiosis: they are government-backed forces in the capital markets built around support for the single most important American social program of the blue period: home ownership.

...Good relations with politicians help make money: ask the leadership of Goldman Sachs, which has provided much of the leadership and policy advice for administrations of both parties for some time.  It’s a sensible trade-off for well connected i-bankers to accept higher general tax rates in exchange for significant influence over government policy.  You can not only use that influence to carve out nice loopholes that insulate you from the high tax rates blue policies entail; you can get enough business from good government relations to offset the cost of the taxes the model requires.  If Al Gore’s environmental businesses make enough money as a result of emission laws and price controls, he doesn’t have to worry too much about his tax rate.  And in any case, carbon taxes favor the financial economy (which uses very little carbon though its PR firms emit a lot of hot air) over the manufacturing economy.

That ought to shed a little light on many of the people who inhabit the 'OWS' encampments, too...

More very good commentary at Grim's place.

Even more (indirectly) from Sarah Palin, courtesy of the Coyote.

HT:  Examiner/Barone