Perhaps the more interesting issue here is the one of conflict within the 'ruling class'.
Bush seemed to have near-universal support over his post-9/11 policies. And a war is often a good way to bring together the imaginary--even hysterical--interests of the ruling class with the religio-nationalist interests of the ruled, so as to keep the class conflicts in check (the real interests of the ruling class being perpetuation of rule, enrichment for their factions). I say that more or less amounts to the post-modern version of fascism, others argue against the use of such terminology. I think the deniers ought to have to spend one week in Iraq or Afghanistan and be forced to tell the Americans how the shit the US serves up tastes so good and how much they love them for it. Then they might change their minds about the semantics. (I agree on the other hand that the old definition of the term regarding mass parties who could and did take political power in nations is largely obsolete.) The ruling class debate under Clinton was whether to proceed with impeaching him over a blowjob--or not. The majority were for politically damaging him to the point where he did almost nothing in office except bomb Iraq and Yugoslavia, but note how abruptly the impeachment movement collapsed when they realized what they were about to do (and remember Joe Leiberman was the Judas then too who helped take it that far). Even Clinton's bombing of Yugoslavia, if you review the votes in Congress, reveals the ruling class was split against him, which is unusual because wars in the US are at least at the beginning quite popular, especially ones where the US gets to show overwhelming might and not suffer many casualties (although the much-vaunted US military never did show any effectiveness whatsover against Serb forces in Kosovo--which is why they chose the 'bomb Yugoslavia' option). The ruling class debate under Bush was far less contentious. One, it was over how best to cover up the fact that the national security state in charge of 'national security' (while enriching itself) had fucked up so badly that it had only managed to enrich itself. The solution? Start wars and conflicts on multiple fronts and scare the shit ouf the civilian populations of 'western democracies'. While enriching themselves. The next ruling class debate under Bush was over the war on Iraq--which if you remember had been going on for over a decade. Clinton had even bought himself some relief by signing on to full-blown 'regime change' and increasing military spending in his last two years in office. The debate wasn't about whether to wage the war but rather how to do it. Often the discussion was about how to bring NATO and UN satellites along for the war. The inner debate though was about just how much of the US's extremely expensive military to commit to the invasion and first two years of occupation. Under Obama the ruling class showed itself -- I'm guessing -- AGAINST major health care reform--that is, a public option. So although the ruling class overall supports Obama and his policies so far in terms of dropping bombs and assigning troops, they didn't support his stance on health care. But he only made that stance in 2008, before he took office. I didn't note any impassioned speeches from the guy when the actual debate in Congress was taking place. He simply diddled himself and played with Gen. McChrystal. Like most presidents the man has the power--and apparently the will--to start new wars, even destroy the world, but he can't take a disciplined stand on health care. I think behind all that nice dental work and ghost-authored speeches, like a lot of people who studied under Zbigniew, Obama really doesn't give a shit either. He makes Bill Clinton look like a vertebrate. -- CJ Japan Higher Education Outlook http://japanheo.blogspot.com/ ELT in Japan http://eltinjapan.blogspot.com/ We are Feral Cats http://wearechikineko.blogspot.com/ _______________________________________________ Marxism-Thaxis mailing list [email protected] To change your options or unsubscribe go to: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/listinfo/marxism-thaxis
