John Dykes August 13, 2010

Thanks everyone... Yes Victor, I found the article to be an interesting insight - in that it is not a simple we good / they bad argument. The paper is written by Angelo Codevilla, a professor of history at BU. He says that because of recent policies and events, the country is being split up into an elite class and a country class. We are moving from a representative democracy to a political order where big players and stakeholders determine policies that boost their own interests. (again - sort of politics as usual) The concept that came to mind was based on those old Soviet propaganda photos where the leaders would present themselves on a Presidium - all lined up high above on a balcony of some sort. The public was informed of the various levels of power of this Council of Ministers by where they stood in relation to the Chairman.... or something like that. I remember being amazed at these real cheesy, badly retouched photos in a history book. A bit of a stretch to compare that to today’s American government - but fuel for an interesting perspective nonetheless. A few quick quotes: Our ruling class holds power by one of the oldest and most prosaic of means: patronage and promises thereof. By making economic rules dependent on discretion, our bipartisan ruling class teaches that prosperity is to be bought with the coin of political support. ...Differences between Bushes, Clintons, and Obamas are of degree, not kind. He argues the solution is not at all clear or easy - and that it needs to come from the people and not from a party or organized political movement from 'above', or the same corruption and patronage will, by the nature of politics, ensue.