[lbo-talk] USA scoffs laws

[andie nachgeborenen]

--- Carrol Cox <cbcox at ilstu.edu> wrote:
> 
> 
Veneration for the law is _my_ department. But because
I also know what I am talking about -- this isn't
becuase I am so clever, it's because I went to law
school, you could do it too -- I also know the limits
of the law. The law is a tolerably blunt instrument
for dispute resolution, and only moderately effective
as a vehicle for progressive politics. The Warren
Court may have created a set of illusions that has not
died yet, partly because it is useful to the right to
have "librul activist judges" to whale on, even almost
20 yrs into the Rehnquist court, partly because it
gives young youngers and law profs at the elite
schools the  satisafaction of a self-image of a 
litigation crusader. But in fact the courts are fairly
conservative and the law is _by design_ an way to
moderate conflict rather than unleash change. As to
Shane, he, like many Americans, imagines that the
meaning of the Constitutional text is self-evident abd
plain. To him. People who disagree are just being
obtuse. (too bad there are so many of them!)

jks


> > 
> 
> What I don't understand is Shane's religious
> veneration of "THE LAW" and
> his indifference to politics. Demanding an
> impeachment is at least a
> minimally political response. One can  organize, for
> example, to bring
> pressure on Congress. One can circulate petitions,
> thereby energizing
> those circulating the petition and potentially
> bringing to political
> activity those whose signatures are sought. This
> triggers direct
> discussion of _political_ issues among a larger
> circle, and perhaps (if
> the substantiveissue, independently of legality or
> illegality is of
> sufficient import) began to generate more collective
> activity of a more
> extensive kind among a larger circle of activists &
> supporters.
> 
> Shane's approach is simply apolitical.
> 
> And incidentally, I've just explained to Doug if
> he's interested (which
> I doubt) my reason for saying there has been no
> political activity for
> 30 years or so in the u.s. Actually, I learned this
> from reading Hannah
> Arendt before I had ever dreamt that I would become
> a marxist.
> 
> Carrol
> 
> ___________________________________
>
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