Re: The Prince

[Jim Devine <jdevine@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

> ... LBJ & Nixon had to adopt some progressive domestic policy stances in
> order to continue the wars abroad while deflecting & coopting the domestic
> challenges to inequality.  As Machiavelli noted, the Prince can't afford
> to fight two wars (at home & abroad) at the same time.  When the Prince
> does not make enough concessions, domestic revolts may become a revolution
> (e.g., WWI & the Russian Revolution).

In general, the US has seen major surges of progressive reform during
recent wars. World War II and the quick segue into the permanent Cold War
helped produce a domestic working class with wealth (war-bonds), education
(the GI Bill), and housing (ditto). My friend Phil Klinkner recently
co-authored a book that argues that war and cold war have been a major
source of progress in race relations between Blacks & Whites.

Of course, war and cold war have also involved police repression (the Smith
Act, the Truman-McCarthy era, COINTELPRO, etc.) The link between reforms
and repression seems a more general phenomenon, as seen during the
class-struggle period of the early 1900s when the capitalist elite allied
with Samuel Gompers' AF of L in the pro-business National Civic Federation
as that independent unions, the IWW, and Eugene Debs were repressed more
and more. At the same time some of the opposition is bought off, the more
independent parts are repressed. This occurs not only during external wars
but also during internal class struggle.

Jim Devine jdevine@xxxxxxx & http://bellarmine.lmu.edu/~JDevine