> Seriously, you want to trust the state after all the
> abuses states have brought down upon people?
Well, one shouldn't even trust oneself, let alone the state. But it's not a question of trust. The issue is, what collective forms can reign in, restrict, or otherwise limit the power of capital, and a democratically elected and accountable state (i.e. a welfare state which acts in the interest of working people) is certainly one of those forms.
One of the real problems facing us US Leftists is our inability to create sustainable collective organizations. In my gloomier moments, I think this is the legacy of Empire - isolated activistisms are the flip side of a permanent military-industrial monopoly capitalism. The more unchangeable the latter, the more entrepreneurial and flexible the former.
But one can't be gloomy forever. Things are moving in the total system which the oiligarchy cannot undo.
-- DRR