[lbo-talk] Defining Conservatism Down

[Nathan Newman]

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Doug Henwood" <dhenwood at panix.com>
-Funny how Bramwell, like many rightists, takes
-the cap-L Left so seriously. We may feel
-marginal, but the right always seems to see us as
-a real threat, and in many cases, more
-intellectually formidable.

They feel like the left is formidable, especially on core economic issues, 
because despite dominating so many institutions, they can't get the 
population to agree with them.   The population still overwhelmingly 
supports the minimum wage, social security, Medicare and the whole apparatus 
of the New Deal.

They may celebrate the erosion of its effective enforcement under the 
pressure of corporate power, but they know tthat they failed completely and 
abjectly to build popular support for dismembering the welfare state and 
labor laws.  The right may win political power but their intellectual 
failure is shown by Bush's need for Orwellian labelling of every initiative 
as if its pro-environment and pro-worker.

Nathan Newman