[lbo-talk] lbo-talk Digest, Vol 1122, Issue 4

brad bauerly bbauerly at gmail.com
Wed Feb 3 19:54:10 PST 2010



>
> Does Britain have anything like our Senate, where a handful of thinly
> populated conservative states can block legislation?

Exactly which states are these?


> Left wingers' fear and contempt for suburbanites, for the white
> working classes, the chavs, 'mouth-breathers', is a refrain that is
> sadly not that original. And - lo and behold! - radical ideas are
> not that popular. Could there be a connection?


>No.

Why not? Why would they listen to people who disparage them?


>You're projecting and imputing wildly here. It's not a matter of
>fear and contempt or of writing people off. I spend considerable
>time in places like New Mexico, Arizona, Texas, and Oklahoma because
>I know people there. Going there also gives me an awareness of
>particulars that your generalizations don't incorporate. So my
>earlier post was sent in agreement with people pointing out that you
>and others frequently say things about the U.S. that don't reflect a
>good knowledge of what's happening on the ground here.

Well, Arizona and New Mexico are both Democratic states, which isn't much but seems to be the metrix by which people here are debating this. I have lived in both, as well as in Montana. After Montana we moved to Boston, which I would consider the most conservative place that I ever lived. So much for the density = progressive nonsense.


>But, as any Marxist schoolchild could tell you, the spontaneous state
>of the proletariat is hardly revolutionary, or even inspiring. And
>understanding the system, as old Karl pointed out, isn't easy. Faith
>in the wisdom of The People is too easy, too populist, and, judging
>from the state of things, kind of unjustified.


>Doug

------------------------------ Right, we need to tell these dumb workers what really ails them. How does that Brecht poem go about electing a new polity?



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