Re: [A-List] Populism or Neoliberalism?

["Yoshie Furuhashi" <critical.montages@xxxxxxxxx>]

On 7/24/07, Louis Proyect <lnp3@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> Yoshie Furuhashi wrote:
> > The thing is that you can't do any politics on your own.  You need
> > other people who agree with you and work with you.
>
> And?
>
> > It's not as if people, be they government officials or common people,
> > can't see problems of populist economy.  What's missing is clarifying
> > discussion of what they should be doing instead.  Few socialists
> > provide any perspective on that.  All concrete criticisms and
> > proposals of alternatives come from liberals.
>
> This is exactly how CP'ers saw things in the 1930s. They tried to get
> jobs in the New Deal to help clarify things for FDR. Congratulations,
> you have come up with your own version of Stalinist politics.

When concrete criticisms and alternatives come from only liberals,
what happens is that, when difficulties of populist economy (like
inflation) turn severe, as they inevitably do from time to time,
people turn to liberalism, not socialism, for they are not hearing
about what socialists would do instead.  That is especially the case
today, when most economists are liberals.
--
Yoshie