[lbo-talk] Obama's Philadelphia race speech and the American Creed

Doug Henwood dhenwood at panix.com
Wed Mar 19 07:09:42 PDT 2008


On Mar 19, 2008, at 9:53 AM, Michael Pollak wrote:


> Why? To me, that seems not only extreme but self-destructive.
> There is
> no way that liberals or the left will ever change the convictions
> of this
> country except by changing the dominant interpretation of the American
> creed. And this formula is exactly the means by which you do that.

It's completely within the paradigm of the wretched American constitutional system. All that balance of powers crap, which was designed to limit popular power, has massively succeed in creating a deeply conservative polity. The alleged re-interpretation is still entirely within the paradigm. I'm fully aware of how hard, nay impossible, it is to change such foundational beliefs, which is why on my pessimistic days I think this will always remain a bit of a hellhole.

Doug



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