The Wink, Wink Campaign

June 08, 2011 at 11:49 AM

By VINCENT DE SANCTIS

There is a strategy common to the campaigns of the prospective Republican candidates. The candidates must pander to the conservative base (many votes) by blaming Democrats for creating the current economic problems while winking at those who know that the agenda is to maximize wealth for the real base (few votes). Ignoring the wink, wink rule is dangerous, as Newt Gingrich found out when he publicly criticized the “Ryan Plan.”

The candidates know that government discretionary programs have only a modest impact on the deficit. They also know that in lamenting about tax policies impacting small businesses they are appealing to a public image that conjures up Main Street establishments. What they conceal is that many of  the allegedly over-taxed small businesses are successful professional practices, including investment firms.

The real agenda is generating and preserving wealth for the wealthiest Americans.

This deflection, or as I describe it as the "shake and bake" strategy, was noted by Thomas Frank in his 2004 book “What's the Matter with Kansas?” Frank described the contradictory nature of people who, while the victims of economic policies (outsourcing, plant closings, relocations overseas, lightly regulated corporations), join with those who contributed in creating the problems. Unfortunately, as Frank observed: "once conservatives are in office the only old-fashioned situation they care to revive is an economic regimen of low wages and lax regulations.”

We know the consequences of this Bush-era approach, including more Americans in poverty, a financial system built like a house of cards, a regulatory system kept under wraps, a federal court system supportive of corporations, and a continued decline in the middle-class standard of living.

The budget deficit is real. Entitlement programs need attention. But Americans must understand that modest tax increases on wealthier Americans, enforced regulations, a reduction in tax loopholes, and greater honesty in accounting for the impact that the millennium’s wars have had on our economy, must be part of any fiscal solution.

Reducing support for the most vulnerable in our society (the “Ryan Plan”) attacking union and government employees, and placing Americans of one generation in competition with future generations is a reflection of a values agenda, encased in the demand for deficit reduction, that says, "We've got ours; too bad for you.”

 A classic wink, wink moment, reflective of the Republican campaign strategy, occurred when House Speaker John Boehner appeared on May 9 before a Wall Street audience. The words of his speech were to appease the right-wing when he suggested that the Republicans would hold raising the debt ceiling hostage until the Democrats conceded sufficient ground on the budget. What wasn't said publicly was, “Folks, you and I know that we will support  an increase because of the financial consequences for you, but we have sold the idea to our base and it is their votes needed for our agenda.”

So goes the “Wink, Wink” campaign.

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