#chokepoint — Public Fediverse posts

Begun reading #Chokepoint #Capitalism by Rebecca Giblin and @pluralistic and it's interesting to see a very identifiable political thread in its blurb people- Adam Conover, Lawrence Lessig, Zephyr Teachout, Jimmy Wales.

These people, who I would, personally, characterize as left-liberals much of the time, provide an interesting anchor point in the political and economic movement for #socialjustice. Some of them have gained an amount of reach and are viewed as experts or at the very least accessible communicators.

In the introduction we see a point of tension in the dialectic between "the minimum demand" (mild, almost performative reform) and "the maximum demand" (#revolution from the root to a different system). #Trotsky is known for the transitional program, but *Reform and Revolution* by #Luxemburg, a bunch of #Kautsky. It's a very long current in the camp of people that want to replace the relations of society and production.

Fascists obviously have used critiques of capitalism in order to gain a political audience, but Germany during the Third Reich reminds one a lot of the kind of incestuous relationship of dominant industry and the political elite.

The question is basically, can what is in many ways a deep overhaul of the #administrative state, something everyone thinks of when they think of Sen. Elizabeth #Warren, really possible? There has to be enough "democracy in the system" to get to the end point, and the US in particular has both issues of #federalism and a federal judiciary that despises the administrative state. Also changes such as relate to monopoly, monopsony, and competition, may in some cases lack what I think is the core way that #reformism can be built upon- stickiness.

I mean essentially that universal benefit programs, well funded, are the most difficult to reverse from the free-market right. They have a very large supportive population that melds the poor, working class, and aspects of the petty bourgeoisie and professionals together in common interests.

Targeting, as is done in neoliberalism, creates inter-class conflict among those not in the elite, and can be stoked additionally by #race, #citizenship, and other factors. Neoliberalism by design when it does #welfare makes programs extremely brittle and easy to defund.

So even though the Tories have had two decade and a half long reigns in power since 1979, and Tony Blair was thoroughly a center-right New Labour PM, the #NHS has stubbornly stuck around even in its crisis state. It has resiliency.

But having enough #democracy in the system is difficult. We can look at Castillo in #Peru and #Boric in Chile, who both rode into power promising a fundamentally new, inclusive, and anti-neoliberal constitution. Actually getting through entrenched power structures, a right-wing #media apparatus, and the eternal riddle of many aspects of a #constitution being popular but at a referendum it adds up to less.

The phrase "#Chile will be the tomb of #neoliberalism imagines an end to neoliberalism- #AMLO talks about this a lot whatever you might think of his time in power. But how do you get over the hump? How do you dispatch it, and make sure it doesn't return? How do you hold sustained power so the capitalists can't just reverse all that can be done? How can genuine democracy and social justice come to fruition?

I don't have a lot of answers, but I appreciate how much was sparked just in the introduction of Chokepoint Capitalism

#wikipedia #socialism #leftwing #progressive