Framing conservatism: Thomas the Tank Engine with lead paint
Yes, of course, this is an unspeakable outrage, though, sadly, not a particularly surprising one. The Bush Administration, we learn, has for some time been thwarting efforts to crack down on lead painted toys from China: the reason, it seems, is that maintaining a “manufacturer-friendly approach” to regulation is more important to them than protecting our kids.
A disgrace, yes, but also an opportunity to, quite literally, save lives. We can do this by using this travesty to effectively frame and thereby discredit the right wing’s hostility toward effective consumer protection. It’s time to show conservatism’s anti-regulation mania for what it is — a philosophy that makes corporate profits a higher priority than the safety of our kids.
But first to the outrage itself:
(McClatchy) Efforts to crack down on lead paint thwarted by China, Bush Administration
WASHINGTON — The Bush administration and China have both undermined efforts to tighten rules designed to ensure that lead paint isn’t used in toys, bibs, jewelry and other children’s products.
Both have fought efforts to better police imported toys from China.
* * *
The Bush administration has hindered regulation on two fronts, consumer advocates say. It stalled efforts to press for greater inspections of imported children’s products, and it altered the focus of the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC), moving it from aggressive protection of consumers to a more manufacturer-friendly approach.
“The overall philosophy is regulations are bad and they are too large a cost for industry, and the market will take care of it,” said Rick Melberth, director of regulatory policy at OMBWatch, a government watchdog group formed in 1983. “That’s been the philosophy of the Bush administration.”
If Democrats can’t frame this in a way that fatally discredits the right’s approach to government, they’re in the wrong line of work: Thomas the Tank Engine with lead paint? Dora the Explorer posing potentially deadly safety threats? Jesus, conservatism couldn’t look more heartless if Bush were to personally slap the Gerber baby in the face.
But there’s a lot more at issue here than just Bush: no, this is about what’s wrong with the whole “greed is good” dogma that constitutes the principal governing philosophy of the Republican Party: a governing philosophy that consistently puts corporate profits ahead of the health and safety of the American people. That is, after all, what government regulation is supposed to be all about — keeping our people, and especially our children, safe.
For over 25 years, the political right has been waging war against government (while at the same time sucking it dry through crony payoffs). And for far too long, no one, not even Democrats (can anyone say “The era of big government is over?”), has fought back. Now we’re paying the piper, with the excesses of largely unregulated capitalism crashing down all around us — everything from the crisis in unregulated lending, to lax mine safety measures, to lead paint in the toys our children play with.
The time to tell that story, bluntly and without apology, is now
August 22nd, 2007 at 1:36 am
The Republican Party is totally corrupt. If the Dems can’t get the message out about the reality of what is happening in this country, then they are totally useless. Of course, the increasing callousness, greed and immorality of the Republicans has been apparent for some time. It is the Media that protects them. Part and parcel of the same evil. Republicans vote for increased toxic emissions, for logging down our forests, for polluting our wilderness, for delisting endangered species, for any travesty Bush proposes. I would like to see an comparison study of the amount of corruption that occurs under Republicans as opposed to Democrats, on a federal and state level. Then all of us need to send the results to our local newspapers. Of course, here in Indiana, the right-wing rag, The Indianapolis Star, wouldnt publish it. It is obvious that Republican policies are costing lives. On every front. If the public cant put two and two together, I have to wonder how they tie their shoes.
August 22nd, 2007 at 8:23 am
sorry for quoting again:
Noam Chomsky:
The driving force of our industrial civilization has been individual material gain, which is accepted as legitimate, even praiseworthy on the grounds that private vices yield public benefits, in the classic formulation. Now it’s long been understood, very well, that a society that is based on this principle will destroy itself in time. It can only persist with whatever suffering and injustice it entails, as long as it’s possible to pretend that the destructive forces that humans create are limited, that the world is an infinite resource, and that the world is an infinite garbage can.
August 22nd, 2007 at 12:07 pm
“The overall philosophy is regulations are bad and they are too large a cost for industry, and the market will take care of it,” said Rick Melberth, director of regulatory policy at OMBWatch, a government watchdog group formed in 1983. “That’s been the philosophy of the Bush administration.”
This line of “thought” has always driven me crazy. Regulatory agencies weren’t just created by business-hating socialists. They came into being out of necessity, precisely because “the market” cannot and will never put human and environmental health and safety ahead of profits. Why is that so hard for so many people to understand?
August 22nd, 2007 at 2:14 pm
Check out the following:
Link
And this:
Link
What’s this got to do with lead paint? Nothing! But they’re sling lead for lies and feelings of power and $$$.
August 22nd, 2007 at 6:10 pm
The “China problem” actually doesn’t involve China at all. I can guarantee you that most of the products being banned are from American companies that out-sourced years ago and are circumventing regulations or ignoring them because they can blame someone else. The jobs moved there and the company (American owned) moved with them.