We live in a media world simultaneously obsessed with technology and personality. Eric Alterman More Quotes by Eric Alterman More Quotes From Eric Alterman Liberals do not appear to address potential solutions with anything like the far right's aura of God-given self-confidence. Eric Alterman aurasaddressesself-confidence While history never repeats itself, political patterns do. Eric Alterman repeatspatternspolitical As a parent and a citizen, I'll take a Bill Gates (or Warren Buffett) over Steve Jobs every time. If we must have billionaires, better they should ignore Jobs's example and instead embrace the morality and wisdom of the great industrialist-philanthropist Andrew Carnegie. Eric Alterman parentexamplejobs Half the U.S. population owns barely 2 percent of its wealth, putting the United States near Rwanda and Uganda and below such nations as pre-Arab Spring Tunisia and Egypt when measured by degrees of income inequality. Eric Alterman ugandaegyptspring I am deeply devoted to the 27,000 songs I can take anywhere on my iPod Classic as well as the exquisitely engineered MacBook Air on which I typed this column. Eric Alterman ipodsairsong More and more, Democrats are starting to worry they that they have a more um, colorful version of Jimmy Carter on their hands. Obama acts cool as a proverbial cucumber but that awful '70s show seems frightfully close to a rerun. Eric Alterman rerunsworryhands Obama, like Carter, is reacting to warning signs by seeking to split the difference between dispirited Democrats and increasingly radicalized Republicans. Eric Alterman splitsdifferenceswarning But particularly when the media profess to strive toward objectivity, gatekeepers play a crucial role in helping people navigate the news to make educated political decisions. Eric Alterman objectivitymediaplay History is replete with examples of empires mounting impressive military campaigns on the cusp of their impending economic collapse. Eric Alterman militaryexamplewar If newspapers were a baseball team, they would be the Mets - without the hope for those folks at the very pinnacle of the financial food chain - who average nearly $24 million a year in income - 'next year.' Eric Alterman teambaseballyears Americans continue to suffer from a notoriously short attention span. They get mad as hell with reasonable frequency, but quickly return to their families and sitcoms. Meanwhile, the corporate lobbies stay right where they are, outlasting all the populist hysteria. Eric Alterman hysteriamadpolitical The ability of the 1 percent to buy politicians and regulators is nothing new in American politics - just as inequality has been a permanent part of our economic system. This is true of virtually all political and economic systems. Eric Alterman economic-inequalitypoliticianpolitical Politically, Obama's amazing streak of self-destructing opponents who have lain beneath his feet during his unlikely political career appears to be holding. Eric Alterman careeramazingpoliticalfeet It's not merely that conservatives are better at selling their product, or that they happen to have an easier-and undoubtedly simpler-ideological product to sell. It's that they know what they are selling. Liberals in general and Obama in particular cannot say the same. Eric Alterman happensaybetterknow Recently released government economic statistics covering 2010, the first year of real recovery from the financial collapse of 2008, found that fully 93 percent of additional income gains coming out of the recession went straight into the wallets and purses of the top 1 percent. Eric Alterman yearstatisticsgovernmentreal
