The Evil and the Good, the Power and the People: An Exchange

I responded:

I actually substantially agree with you here. These are indeed the tendencies of power systems, including the power system of the United States, and not just under the Bushites.

That they are TENDENCIES rather than rules is nonetheless a significant caveat.

Saying that "The truth Elite, the teachers, jounalists, priests, artists and social scientists form a truth consenus formulated from the perspective of power, notably class power, rather than from the perspective of the population," would not prepare one for the enormous strength of radical ideology in American academia. (The kind of question you declare here "is not asked in liberal social science because it is unscientific by the liberal standards of scientism" is asked a very great deal in many political science and sociology departments in American universities.)

These days, too, it is easy to forget how politically powerful American labor unions once were, within my lifetime.

Just as I wish that the people I used to live with in the Shenandoah Valley understood just how much truth there is in what you say here, so also I would wish for you to see the important limits to how far those truths go to explain the American reality.

Just one more particular, about this statement: "Only 5 justices voted for this action that I attributed to the powerstate; but how did they get in this position? they were voted there by both the Gops and Dems."

I've watched the battle over Court appointments very closely --especially since Reagan's time, but a fair amount going back to the end of LBJ's term, when Abe Fortas got knocked out and the Republicans prevented LBJ from appointing the next Chief Justice until after Nixon was elected.

One can point to the various votes to approve nominees to the Supreme Court. But to interpret those votes as meaning that everyone who did not vote No "approved" of the nominee, wanted that nominee on the Court, weren't eager to find a way to block that appointment-- such an interpretation is a simple misreading of the situation.

Some of the broad brushes of your ideology expose basic truths of society. Some of the heart of the system is also obscured by those same brush strokes.

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The reader replied:

I am not saying that we shouldn't hold our noses and vote for Dems; but we should do so with the understanding that whatever they are saying now, and whatever they sincerely think, will change when they get in office. As political sicentists put it, the discourse of candidicy diverges from the discourse of governance.

What that means in practicie is that they are going to sell you out. This is not because they are bad people or do not possess enough Goodness. As May West said when asked by a fan how the goodness she got so many diamands, goodness has nothing to do with it. The problem is the way power systems are developed in class societies.

We are now living at a time in history when liberal powerstates are decaying historically. There is a power disconnect between the capitalist power structure and the the population. The challenge is to find a way to bridge this disconnect. Voting for Dems isn't going to do it. They are NOT MAGNIFICENT (dammit).

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