<HTML><BODY><DIV style='font-family: "Verdana"; font-size: 10pt;'><DIV>Jim Farmelant wrote:</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Big capital thus still needs parties like the Democrats<BR>> in the US or New Labour in Great Britain to get portions<BR>> of their neoliberal program enacted, precisely because<BR>> the right cannot, on its own, mobilize popular support<BR>> for such a program.  Big capital needs the Democrats<BR>> in the US or Labour in the UK to convince the general<BR>> public that it's necessary to save the welfare state<BR>> by destroying it.<BR>-----------------------------------<BR>Marvin Gandall replied:</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>By this logic, shouldn't the capitalists have turned to Democratic and<BR>Labour politicians like Mondale, Dukakis, and Michael Foot as instruments of<BR>their post-70s offensive to privatize and deregulate the welfare state<BR>rather than to Republicans and Conservatives like Reagan and Thatcher?<BR>Shouldn't Wall Street have supported Kerry over Bush as the better bet to<BR>privatize social security and defend the tax cuts for the rich, as well as<BR>to push other items on the corporate legislative and regulatory agenda?<BR><BR>*************</DIV> <DIV>It depends. Capitalists usually prefer the A team (Republicans, Tories) when the latter can produce results. It's when the A team is having a hard time putting the class agenda accross that capitalists may turn to the B team (Dems, New Labour). Reagan and Thatcher (initially) were popular, so there was no problem. But do you remember, when Thatcher's act was wearing thin because of the poll tax, the ease with which the staunch Conservative, Rupert Murdoch, switched to Blair? Or how quickly the Reagan team cashiered Marcos when Filipinos rose against him, and threw its support behind Corey Aquino? Smart capitalists appreciate the virtues of "alternance", not least as a result of situations in which they found themselves without a safe alternative to their usual people--like France, 1968, or Iran, 1979. As Hearst/Kane/Welles remarked to a plutocrat in the movie, "You're lucky to have me as the voice of the common man instead of some radical."</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV><BR><BR> </DIV></DIV></BODY></HTML>