Blog: http://kenthink7.blogspot.com/index.html Blog: http://kencan7.blogspot.com/index.html
--- On Fri, 1/23/09, Max B. Sawicky <sawicky at verizon.net> wrote:
> From: Max B. Sawicky <sawicky at verizon.net>
> Subject: Re: [lbo-talk] Obamauration
> To: lbo-talk at lbo-talk.org
> Date: Friday, January 23, 2009, 6:22 AM
> Given your premise -- "in which the interests . . .
> " -- you're right, it doesn't make sense.
>
>
> ken hanly wrote:
> > How can there be a non-ideological administration in a
> class society in which the interests of the ruling class
> must be paramount for the administration? This makes no
> sense at all to me.
> >
> > Cheers, K hanly
> >
> > Blog: http://kenthink7.blogspot.com/index.html
> > Blog: http://kencan7.blogspot.com/index.html
> >
> >
> > --- On Thu, 1/22/09, Max B. Sawicky
> <sawicky at verizon.net> wrote:
> >
> >> From: Max B. Sawicky <sawicky at verizon.net>
> >> Subject: Re: [lbo-talk] Obamauration
> >> To: lbo-talk at lbo-talk.org
> >> Date: Thursday, January 22, 2009, 7:04 AM
> >> James Heartfield wrote:
> >>> This is a bit impressionistic, but rushing
> through the
> >> LBO reaction to Obama's inauguration, the
> chasm between
> >> that and the reactions to his election seems huge.
> Shouldn't we go back over
> >> what we all said then, and compare it with the
> >> hyper-critical reaction to him now?
> >> I feel as though I was too critical then, and a
> bit
> >> distanced from the criticisms made of him here,
> now. Is the
> >> disappointment relative to the
> >> great hopes placed in the man? Are the
> disappointments a
> >> bit overdone? He is not left wing, clearly that is
> the case.
> >> But then why should
> >> we have thought otherwise?
> >>> I still think that Obama's election
> represents a
> >> sea-change in America's race politics, and one
> for the
> >> good. Is that naive?
> >>> His cabinet choices don't seem to me to
> say that
> >> he is right wing, but rather that he is trying to
> supercede
> >> the left-right political divide, a bit like Tony
> Blair did here in 1997. The danger in that
> >> is not right wing politics, but the creation of an
> >> apolitical technocratic administration.
> >> Seeing the popular mobilisation behind the
> presidency it
> >> might seem odd to say it, but the outcome of this
> apolitical
> >> administration is a retreat
> >> from democratic contestation, where dissent is
> >> marginalised.
> >>> ___________________________________
> >> The question will be, does centrist or pragmatist
> really
> >> mean non-ideological, or merely ideology in a
> different
> >> guise.
> >> If truly non-ideological, then the Admin will be
> driven
> >> without prejudice to solutions that work, which
> could mean
> >> some
> >> radical stuff with the advantage of being dressed
> in
> >> unradical clothes. For instance, I wouldn't
> be
> >> surprised to see some
> >> nationalized banks (the issue there is one of
> compensation
> >> or lack thereof), though they would doubtless be
> sold back
> >> after reorganization. The Blair analogy is a good
> one,
> >> though it would be like dropping Blair into this
> new unique
> >> historical moment.
> >>
> >> I don't think anybody knows how the race
> dimension will
> >> play out, only that something new is in store.
> >>
> >> Technocratic does not strike me as so bad,
> relatively
> >> speaking, but maybe that's because I'm a
> technocrat.
> >>
> >> As for dissent, from experience I can assure all
> that there
> >> is nobody more partisan and intolerant of dissent
> >> from left or right than trade unionists, to which
> we could
> >> minorities and today's raging liberal
> >> 'netroots.'
> >> It will be hard to criticize BHO for a while
> (politically,
> >> not in terms of substance), but at the same time
> >> once he disappoints them (on EFCA, for instance),
> things
> >> will get really interesting.
> >>
> >>
> >> ___________________________________
> >>
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> > ___________________________________
> > http://mailman.lbo-talk.org/mailman/listinfo/lbo-talk
> >
> >
>
>
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