On Mon, 3 May 2004, Yoshie Furuhashi wrote:
> >That's not harnessing, Yoshie. When you harness something, it pulls
> >you in the same direction.
>
> No, Michael, when you harness something, like a draft animal, you bring
> it under your control and direct its force.
That's true also when you harness the wind in a sailboat. But the wind is the ultimate arbiter.
> In the case of the Democrats, (fiscally correct) economic neoliberalism
> is the rider, and the liberalizaiton of social mores is the horse. The
> Republicans do the same, except that, in their case, (fiscally
> incorrect) economic neoliberalism is the rider, and cultural reaction
> and resentment is the horse.
So you're saying the right gets no more from the Repugs than the left gets from the Dems? That's comforting to know.
Becomes sometimes it looks the opposite. Like the repugs are more at the mercy of their wind. And that the political spectrum has drifted so far to the right that Nixonian social policy discourse is now off the map to the left -- and the marginal rightwing discourse of Nixon's time about abolishing welfare is now policy. Not to mention the changes in the discourses about abortion, crime, drugs, and the death penalty.
So nice to know that isn't true.
That's certainly one way to solve the puzzle.
Michael