Actually, though, there is no percentage in it for many of us. We have been so tarred by our madness hitherto that the only way we will be readmitted into the fold is to make the Great Renunciation and become David Horowitzes. This is too distasteful, and besides, the market is overcrowded. So we might as well stay mad but happy. It would be irrational of us to do otherwise. You're the economist, Brad, right?
--jks
>
>>The Dems, or something like them, will always be marginally better
>>than the Repugs, or something like them. If a progressive or left
>>party gets rolling and wins more substantial support than the Greens
>>have this time, it will cut into Dem support. The nore successful
>>the left party is, the more deeply it will cut into Dem support. And
>>such a party cannot hope to win for a long time. That means that for
>>a long time, the role such a party could play in national elections
>>will necessarily be that of a spoiler. If we are not willing to do
>>that, we have indeed no business supporting a left party. But if we
>>have no business supporting a left party, we might as well pack it
>>in, give up on left politics, and become unhappily dissident Dems,
>>because that is what there is.
>
>
>Yep. That's the way it is.
>
>But it's better to recognize that you live in an Iron Cage than to
>pretend you don't.
>
>The first way you are sane (if unhappy) and the keepers let you vent
>occasionally, and even allow you to work on raising the minimum wage
>and expanding the Earned Income Tax Credit once in a while. Trust me:
>it's bad, but it's not *that* bad.
>
>The second way you are simply mad, but happy.
>
>
>Brad DeLong
_________________________________________________________________________ Get Your Private, Free E-mail from MSN Hotmail at http://www.hotmail.com.
Share information about yourself, create your own public profile at http://profiles.msn.com.