I'm not sure that's true. Doug, you would know better than I, but ever since Free and Cantril in the 1960s there has been a pretty robust support for measures well to the left of whatever the reigning powers would tolerate -- though as F&C noted, this wasn't ideologically packaged as socialist, revolutionary, communist, radical, left wing. It's just that significant majorities of ordinary people want the policies that those of us who are socialist, revolutionary, communist, radical, left wing want. I think, though, that there is immense and well-grounded skepticism about whether anyone has a better idea that might replace we overall architecture of what we have _and_ the political organization to break through very strong defenses of tiny but well-entrenches powerful minorities. So Carl's etc., justified unhappiness about the Dems & the GOP competing to run the capitalist order in different ways doesn't translate into a rejection of capitalism, despite many people sharing his cynicism and saying they support policies that right wingers and left wingers call left wing, but ordinary people just call desirable. Some of this is no doubt due to the lack of institutionalized political organizations that advocate such policies. In Chicago we say, votes count but dollars (and/or organization) decide(s). Needless to say no one other than the sectarian loons has any concrete proposals about what to do about this situation.
--- Doug Henwood <dhenwood at panix.com> wrote:
>
> On Oct 3, 2007, at 1:26 PM, Carl Remick wrote:
>
> >> Yeah, except it's managed to grow enormously over
> several centuries,
> >> hasn't it?
> >
> > Several centuries? Then don't you think it's time
> for a change?
>
> I'm all for that. Sadly, there aren't very many
> people who agree with
> us.
>
> Doug
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