Comrades,
It is said that when the U.S. government does
something good or fails to do something bad, it
is only as a concession to an incipient
proletarian-revolutionary movement. When it
fails to do something good or elects to do
something bad, on the other hand, it is said to
merely be acting true to form.
Ex post, it is of course possible to explain
everything according to this theory. A true test
of such a theory, however, would be its
predictive power, not its power to rationalize
history after the fact.
Friday the House of Representatives is scheduled
to vote on Fast Track authority. Most would
agree, aside from reservations about anti-free
trade politics, that the correct vote for the
bourgeoisie is "yes." Accordingly, the only
explanation for a 'no' vote by the theory alluded
to above is fear of working class mobilization by
the ruling class.
Most would agree the U.S. left is not in a
position of strength, the U.S. revolutionary
left is invisible, and the labor movement is
starting to eat a few Wheaties (sorry for
technical terminology) but has a good ways to go
before it can leap over tall buildings. It would
seem inevitable, therefore, under the theory of
bourgeois dictatorship that Fast Track will pass.
So what can you blokes say before Friday's vote
that might explain a Fast Track defeat which is a
victory for the working class? Wouldn't you have
to revise your view of liberalism, social
democracy, and the nature of the State?
Unfortunately for your side, a Fast Track victory
merely upholds the time-honored maxim that 'shit
happens' and does not refute the possibility that
good things can happen at other times.
Cheers,
MBS
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Max B. Sawicky Economic Policy Institute
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