> One can think of many causes of that situation, but the root of them
> seems
> to be grounded in the unusual power of business, which by its very
> nature is
> anti-democratic.
That's obviously a big part of the explanation, but there is a lot in the deep-rooted conservatism of Americans that has to be explained by other factors. For example, I don't think many businesses care too much one way or another if people think life begins at conception or not, or if gay marriage is considered the death-knell to marriage as we know it. In fact, a lot of businesses are perfectly willing to extend benefits to gay partners even if they're not married according to the government.
I think a big part of the historical background to American popular conservatism is that nearly all the colonists who originally came here from Europe were basically bourgeois wannabies who thought that this was the place to strike it rich -- by working slaves if need be, or by using some poor suckers as indentured servants. Though we still call the 1776 business "the American Revolution," many historians point out that "the War for Independence" would be a better name -- the war to remove the Crown's restrictions on American business people's scrabbling for profits. And striking it rich, one way or another, has been "the American dream" ever since.
> That is why the US can maintain a façade of democracy - but if any
> serious challenge
> to business interests emerges, this country will be transformed into an
> overt police state virtually overnight.
What, in your view, would a "serious challenge" be, and just how would businesses induce the government to set up a police state? And just how would it be done? There is a lot of loose talk in some leftist circles about this kind of thing, but I've yet to see the process spelled out in a convincing, realistic way. Presumably, the precedent of the Nazis lies behind this scenario, so the argument becomes the old one of "can it happen here?" We all know the moves in that argument, so I don't want to take up space rehearsing them here.
> One may further inquire what factors let to such unusual concentration
> of
> business power in the US. One of my prime suspects is the
> fragmentation and
> compartmentalization of the US society along racial, ethnic, religious
> and
> geographic lines. While peons were fighting amongst themselves who
> can use
> which drinking fountain or who can have sex with whom, the business
> leaders
> worked hard to consolidate their power.
Business leaders also fight among themselves. And conversely, the "peons" sometimes fight together.
> Another prime suspect is the political organization that facilitates
> fragmentation. This includes the winner takes all voting system and
> gerrymandering, but also the federal structure that severely restricts
> if
> not altogether eliminates the sovereignty of the individual states.
> From
> the big business point of view, it is much easier to capture the
> federal
> government and use its power to advance business interests in
> individual
> states than do so on the state-by-state basis. State politics are by
> nature
> more susceptible to popular influences than the federal entity, mainly
> because only big centralized organizations have sufficient resources to
> influence the federal entity.
And in fact there is increasing talk about aiming progressive activities towards state-level targets, reviving federalism of a left sort of type.
Jon Johanning // jjohanning at igc.org __________________________ When I was a little boy, I had but a little wit, 'Tis a long time ago, and I have no more yet; Nor ever ever shall, until that I die, For the longer I live the more fool am I. -- Wit and Mirth, an Antidote against Melancholy (1684)