--- On Fri, 7/24/09, Marv Gandall <marvgandall at videotron.ca> wrote:
>
> Until the most politically advanced sectors of the US
> working class choose
> another vehicle to defend their interests, these
> disagreements should matter
> to us also.
>
[WS:] Marv, I really enjoy reading your postings and agree with most of what you say. However, I do not buy your concept, shared by wide segments of the left, that things in the US can change if only the working class "choose" to "organize" better. They cannot and the whole history of this country is a living proof of that. Although there has been an institutional sea change in virtually all industrialized countries in the world, the US institutional framework remains pretty much intact since its inception in 1776 with one important exception - the establishment of the standing army after the Civil War, which revolutionized the entire US foreign policy.
The main reason for that is the the US democracy has been founded too soon, in an era when key elements of modern democracy, such as proportional political representation or the fundamental role of the state in the provision of public welfare, were virtually unknown. The US democracy was established by enlightened oligarchs who implemented some very progressive at the time ideas, but who were also, or above all businessmen - merchants, plantation owners, financiers, etc. - and thus made sure that the new state they established was not only as business friendly as possible but also that also that it stayed that way in the future. Hence the entire institutional edifice that dissipates the political power as much as possible and subjugates it to business interest.
As a result, the US state is fundamentally a funnel for collecting taxes from the public and funneling them to the pockets of well-connected businessmen - aka as "political patronage" or "pork and barrel" which is the norm rather than an aberration. There is no concept of public good in the US government if that good cannot be provided by private business for a profit. The only public goods that the US government can pursue on its own without farming it out to private business are those of purely symbolic, non-monetary nature, such as nurturing patriotism, freedom and general pursuit of happiness. The only time the US government is permitted to produce material public goods is on a provisional basis, when such goods are essential to private business yet private business cannot easily procure them.
That is the fundamental feature of the US government which has not changed since the inception of the US state. Virtually all political institutions, from political parties, to elections, to government and the court system is geared to maintain that funnel-like nature of the US state and protect it from any serious challenges. And this worked all to well for the 200+ years - defusing all challenges to public-private symbiosis (i.e. public funds for private profits.)
Since this has not changed for the past 200 years, it is unlikely to change in the foreseeable future, as long as there is a flow in the funnel that connects government to business, and public funds to private profits. It has been a very successful racket, a goose that lays golden eggs for both businessmen and politicians, and there is no way that the business and the political classes are going to give it up. But since this funnel-like relation between government and business is the most essential core of the entire US state apparatus, changing it is not possible without the destruction of the US state. And that is simply not within the reach (not even close) of any political force in the modern world, let alone the emasculated working class or the marginalized Left.
So the only thing that can be said in response to Mr. Obama 'hope' message is a line from Dante "All hope abandon, ye who enter here."
Wojtek