******************** POSTING RULES & NOTES ******************** #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived. #3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern. *****************************************************************
Andrew On Sat, Jun 10, 2017 at 12:55 AM Louis Proyect <l...@panix.com> wrote: > If people want to understand the source of Donald Trump's troubles, the > best place to start is G. William Domhoff's "Who Rules America" that > Domhoff himself describes in the following terms: > > --"The rich" coalesce into a social upper class that has developed > institutions by which the children of its members are socialized into an > upper-class worldview, and newly wealthy people are assimilated. > > --Members of this upper class control corporations, which have been the > primary mechanisms for generating and holding wealth in the United > States for upwards of 150 years now. > > --There exists a network of nonprofit organizations through which > members of the upper class and hired corporate leaders not yet in the > upper class shape policy debates in the United States. > > --Members of the upper class, with the help of their high-level > employees in profit and nonprofit institutions, are able to dominate the > federal government in Washington. > > Domhoff does not mention this but election campaigns are a balancing > act. The TV commercials, the rallies, etc. target the working class > voters (I use this term in the broader Marxist sense of those who sell > their labor power) but the candidates at the same time are selling their > wares to the big bourgeoisie. That is the significance of Hillary > Clinton's speeches, especially to Goldman-Sachs who really rules America > in the Domhoff sense. > > Trump never bothered to do this. Instead he flailed away at the sort of > institutions that "dominate the federal government" and antagonized > people who run the CIA, the FBI, the State Department et al. Now if he > had shown an ability once in office to carry out their policy > preferences, there would be no problem. But unlike Clinton or Bush or > anybody else that has ever been President, Trump thinks he is running > his business. Not only is this an illusion, he *is* running it like his > businesses--namely very poorly. > > Will they find a way to get rid of him? It is too soon to say. But I can > tell you this. They intend to keep him on a tight leash for the > foreseeable future. > > -- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "Progressive Economics" group. > To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an > email to pen-l+unsubscr...@mail.csuchico.edu. > To post to this group, send email to pe...@mail.csuchico.edu. > Visit this group at > https://groups.google.com/a/mail.csuchico.edu/group/pen-l/. > To view this discussion on the web visit > https://groups.google.com/a/mail.csuchico.edu/d/msgid/pen-l/5b76ed42-0c2d-fb6b-e95d-16b8a1c4fcf9%40panix.com > . > For more options, visit > https://groups.google.com/a/mail.csuchico.edu/d/optout. > _________________________________________________________ Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm Set your options at: http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
