Dividends of a Just Economy What is keeping the government from acting on behalf of its citizens? by Robert Kuttner, NY Review of Books, April 29, 2021 issue https://www.nybooks.com/articles/2021/04/29/dividends-of-a-just-economy . . . Yet while the US has this unique structural bias against activist government, since the 1990s the countries of the West, despite markedly different constitutional systems and political histories, have experienced similar patterns of democratic deterioration. Economic circumstances have turned against ordinary people, mainstream leaders have failed to provide a remedy, and voters have increasingly looked to ultranationalists, even to aspiring dictators. This is the case in nations with presidential systems or parliamentary systems, in those friendly to immigration or hostile to it, in ones with social democratic traditions or more conservative histories, and with and without legacies of slavery. There is some common dynamic at work. [lol could it have something to do with the capitalist system? could this be the key to the mystery of 'what keeps the government from acting on behalf of its citizens?' dg] . . . Heather McGhee’s *The Sum of Us* is a powerful call for racial alliance. More than a moral appeal, McGhee’s book provides a practical manual on how to bring it about. McGhee, a former president of the progressive think tank Demos, argues that the most effective form of antiracism is to embrace both race and class... . . . McGhee credits and builds on the work of Ian Haney López, whose most recent book, *Merge Left*, is a complementary call for racial coalition. Like McGhee, he is both nuanced and unflinching. “I had assumed that the main stumbling block to urging cross-racial solidarity would be convincing a majority of whites,” he writes. “Equally formidable, it turned out, was enlisting support from people directly focused on racial justice, overwhelmingly activists of color.” . . . ... Three quarters of respondents in a multiracial group agreed with this statement:
*Instead of delivering for working people, politicians hand kickbacks to their donors who send jobs overseas. Then they turn around and blame new immigrants or people of color, to divide and distract us from the real source of our problems.* Haney López is mindful of the tightrope act, and he is resolute in his conclusion: we can’t duck race, but we need to talk about it in a way that builds transracial unity: “For centuries, our greatest heroes—radicals like W.E.B. Du Bois, Martin Luther King Jr., and César Chavez—have insisted that American salvation requires cross-racial alliances.” . . . Ian Haney López https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ian_Haney_L%C3%B3pez -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Groups.io Links: You receive all messages sent to this group. View/Reply Online (#8082): https://groups.io/g/marxmail/message/8082 Mute This Topic: https://groups.io/mt/82201329/21656 -=-=- 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. #4 Do not exceed five posts a day. -=-=- Group Owner: [email protected] Unsubscribe: https://groups.io/g/marxmail/leave/8674936/21656/1316126222/xyzzy [[email protected]] -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
