camp patmos

...prepare to be disappointed.


After the last two nightmares of presidential elections, itapos;s difficult to really *believe* things are gonna be OK this time. However, it is looking very good for Obama at this point.

See the latest? Endorsed by Colin Powell. I gotta think thatapos;s going to defuse some fears among certain voters.

I guess Iapos;m disappointed to see presidential elections get so expensive--that Obama has to spend so much to be this competitive. But, damnit, too much is riding on this election to let ourselves get qualms over that. I chipped in another few hundred the other day. And I find it incrediably encouraging that so much of Obamaapos;s funds are coming from many small(er) donors. Itapos;s encouraging to see some power available to oppose the powerful and rich special interests. Of course, thatapos;s part of why the Arch-NeoCons are so anxious to destroy the middle class. The Middle Class has political and economic power, without being predictable and loyal to the powers-that-be. Itapos;s the mix of having enough resources to be willing to take risks (on progressive policies) combined with not having enough to be threatened by the resulting changes.

The economic lower classes are conservative because they canapos;t afford to lose anything more. The economically upper class is afraid of losing their place on top of the heap.

So, the broader and more robust the middle class, the stronger the democracy. I guess thatapos;s pretty obvious. We really donapos;t get see democracies in societies until there is a middle class. Anarchies seem viable in egalitarian societies with little to no surplus (as brilliantly suggested in The Dispossessed). There is the middle ground when hierarchies are established in societies that are generating surplus to support royalty, etc.

Just got done reading _King Rat_ by China Mieville. It was great--far better than Iapos;d expected. He definitely manages story lines that will never be mainstreamed. Anyhow, as usual, he has a fair bit of left-wing politics in it.

-B.

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