On Mon, 22 Aug 2005 10:23:44 -0400 "Nathan Newman"
<nathanne at nathannewman.org> writes:
> ----- 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.
It's also shown by the fact that it was a Democratic president who was able to get such legislation passed as NAFTA, GATT, the abolition of AFDC and the like, not a Republican. As long as there is a Republican in the White House, social security will probably continue, more or less intact, despite the fact that Republicans would like very much to do away with it. If a Democrat is elected to the White House, then all bets are off concerning social security reform.
Big capital thus still needs parties like the Democrats in the US or New Labour in Great Britain to get portions of their neoliberal program enacted, precisely because the right cannot, on its own, mobilize popular support for such a program. Big capital needs the Democrats in the US or Labour in the UK to convince the general public that it's necessary to save the welfare state by destroying it.
>
> Nathan Newman
>
>
>
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