The intentions of the corporate class, the (captured) government class, and the plutocratic class are all about world domination while, yes, including notions of liberty, freedom and representation in their propaganda rhetoric. (Or at least using them as buzzwords. I’m not sure if the typical MAGA knows what liberty or freedom is.)
But this is the reason we need to organize at the grassroots level. The goal I suggest in the US is organizing twelve million Americans under a common manifesto. It’s tricky: we’d need some legal and government scholars to write it up and make it accessible to the public (and annotate it so that they understand it).
The thing is, the US seemed to (more or less) be trying to do this in the postwar economy (that is, post WWII), in which business was tightly regulated, unions were strong, the owner class was taxed heavily, and antitrust enforcement was robust. It started deteriorating in the 1970s (right around when we went off the gold standard, and Lewis Powell wrote his (now notorious) memorandum. Jerry Falwell discovered the single-issue voter, the southern strategy became full on dog-whistle racism, and Reagan won in a landslide (with a little help from Iran). The economy went K-shaped, and corruption in government increased exponentially from there.
I think most Americans want the US to be a pluralistic liberal democracy. Some people might be so sheltered as to believe it already is. (Looking at you, Kavanaugh.) But maybe we need to commit to the notion that is is what we want, but isn’t there right now, and is in stark jeopardy of never being able to become it ever again (without the US turning into another thing, another iteration of society).
How to make it happen is well beyond my pay grade, but I might be able to find language that is effective for a mission statement.
I like what you have to say and I do think there is a way forward. We have to convince the wealthy to relent by offering them something worthwhile to trade for their wealth for. Perhaps social status or some scheme that works for them on a basic psychological level.
There are going to be winners and losers in every policy decision, the trick is making it palatable for the loserss. This is ultimately what must be decided for the current wealthy class. Ideally it should be mostly voluntary with minimal coercion. It will require new thinking outside our current common paradigms.
The intentions of the corporate class, the (captured) government class, and the plutocratic class are all about world domination while, yes, including notions of liberty, freedom and representation in their propaganda rhetoric. (Or at least using them as buzzwords. I’m not sure if the typical MAGA knows what liberty or freedom is.)
But this is the reason we need to organize at the grassroots level. The goal I suggest in the US is organizing twelve million Americans under a common manifesto. It’s tricky: we’d need some legal and government scholars to write it up and make it accessible to the public (and annotate it so that they understand it).
The thing is, the US seemed to (more or less) be trying to do this in the postwar economy (that is, post WWII), in which business was tightly regulated, unions were strong, the owner class was taxed heavily, and antitrust enforcement was robust. It started deteriorating in the 1970s (right around when we went off the gold standard, and Lewis Powell wrote his (now notorious) memorandum. Jerry Falwell discovered the single-issue voter, the southern strategy became full on dog-whistle racism, and Reagan won in a landslide (with a little help from Iran). The economy went K-shaped, and corruption in government increased exponentially from there.
I think most Americans want the US to be a pluralistic liberal democracy. Some people might be so sheltered as to believe it already is. (Looking at you, Kavanaugh.) But maybe we need to commit to the notion that is is what we want, but isn’t there right now, and is in stark jeopardy of never being able to become it ever again (without the US turning into another thing, another iteration of society).
How to make it happen is well beyond my pay grade, but I might be able to find language that is effective for a mission statement.
I like what you have to say and I do think there is a way forward. We have to convince the wealthy to relent by offering them something worthwhile to trade for their wealth for. Perhaps social status or some scheme that works for them on a basic psychological level.
There are going to be winners and losers in every policy decision, the trick is making it palatable for the loserss. This is ultimately what must be decided for the current wealthy class. Ideally it should be mostly voluntary with minimal coercion. It will require new thinking outside our current common paradigms.