I’ve read Nancy Maclean’s book and used it in my blog and just watched the video of her talk in Seattle at the Fix Democracy First event where she expanded on her book, Democracy In Chains, to further reveal the “THE DEEP HISTORY OF THE RADICAL RIGHT’S STEALTH PLAN FOR AMERICA.” Professor Maclean is the William H. Chafe Distinguished Professor of History and Public Policy.
Another author and professor I reference is Richard Wolff. Professor Wolff is Professor of Economics Emeritus, University of Massachusetts, Amherst where he taught economics from 1973 to 2008. He is currently a Visiting Professor in the Graduate Program in International Affairs of the New School University, New York City. Both authors are pointing out the problems that are plaguing our democracy/economy.
What I understand from Professor Maclean is that the more we know about this stealthy, authoritarian, political Koch plan, the better we can recognize and defeat it. What I understand from Professor Wolff is that our auuthoritarian economic system is also contributing to the destruction of America. And the goals of both authoritarian manipulated systems overlap to empower and protect the excessively wealthy.
What this becomes for me is this. Our political system, which is under stealth attack as Maclean’s book documents, is founded on democratic values which are being destroyed. In addition, as Professor Wolff has documented in books, articles and video, our economic system is founded on authoritarian values – master/slave, lord/serf, employer/employee – and we need to recognize it’s also a broken economic system that is being used to fund the conversion of our political system into an authoritarian one owned by the capitalists. They are both describing a future for American that is also described by Sheldon Wolin in Democracy Incorporated: Managed Democracy and the Specter of Inverted Totalitarianism.
The Kochs, other right-wing authoritarians, and libertarian thinktanks are all key authoritarian destructors for both our political and economic systems.
The antidote for our authoritarian political future that MacLean promotes is recognition of the authoritarian subterfuge and massive democratic action. The antidote for our current authoritarian economic system is also massive democratic action. Professor Wolff envisions this democratic action as democracy@work by replacing the employer/employee system with a purely employee driven economic system commonly called coops.
Both our political and economic systems are broken and making our economic system more democratic would enhance Maclean’s antidotal recommendations to help save our political system by disempowering the wealthy authoritarians/employers who are using our authoritarian economic system, capitalism, to fund the destruction of our democratic political system.
Andy Hailey