Laclau, "Universalism, Particularism and the Question of Identity"

If democracy is possible, it is because the universal has no necessary body and no necessary content; different groups, instead, compete between themselves to temporarily give to their particularisms a function of universal representation. Society generates a whole vocabulary of empty signifiers whose temporary signifieds are the result of a political competition. It is this final failure off society to constitute itself as society - which is the same thing as the failure of constituting difference as difference - which makes the distance between the universal and the particular unbridgeable and, as a result, burdens concrete social agents with the impossible task of making democratic interaction achievable.

A Rare Thing

It's rare that a little, teeny, petite blogpost about a blogpost (Klein, "Krugman on Krugman") can be so accurate a summation of (what Doug Henwood calls) what the people at The New Left Review call "the current conjuncture."

We began with an economic crisis that looked a lot like the Great Depression. But due in large part to the massive efforts of the Federal Reserve and the government, we pulled out of it, or seem to have pulled out of it.

Of course, I think people do understate the political work done by this administration simply to keep a Depression-ish financial collapse from sucking our entire society into a squalid crater. But the question for the people who govern us is: now that we have (maybe) "hit bottom," how, then, will we re-emerge? How long will it take to begin gaining ground again? And will we be a fairer society when we emerge, better-hedged against the asset bubbles and demand-side shortfalls that occasion these recurrent crises?

If the answer to that last question is "yes," I want to know how demand can be stimulated without rising wages, increased government investment in human welfare (i.e., government entitlements and government jobs) and, by extension, increased taxation of the wealthy? Will Democrats come to see that it is in their political self-interest to open themselves up further to charges of socialism, big-government, blah-blah-blah, if said charges arise while they are delivering actual benefits to voters?

Chris Matthews and Foucualt are both always right when they say that the burden of governing is heaviest on the 20th/21st century Left. If Ds win on the discourses of "health care" and "jobs," they can afford to lose on "socialism," because at that point, socialism'll be* just another (bleeping) tree falling in the (bleeping) woods.

*Actually, socialism already is a (bleeping) tree falling in the (bleeping) woods: at least in the northwest hemisphere. Go ahead and blame it on the whole previous century, or Stalin, or Mitterand, if that makes you feel better.

With Dean Baker, against all economic "common sense"

Quoth the Lex Dexter Chair of Telling it Like It Isn't Not:

The basic story on the budget deficit is very simple: we badly need large budget deficits in the short-term. They are the only force that can sustain demand in the economy after the collapse of housing construction and the loss of the consumption that had been supported by $8 trillion in illusory housing bubble wealth.

In the longer term we will need to reduce our trade deficit to replace this demand, but this can only be brought about by a reduction in the value of the dollar against the currencies of our trading partners. If our budget experts had been capable of independent thinking before the crash, they would have pointed out the over-valued dollar as a main cause of imbalances in the U.S. economy. Unfortunately, most of them are still incapable of recognizing the obvious.

The other big oversight that the budget experts commit is the failure to recognize the positive role that moderate rates of inflation can play in our economic recovery.

What was I saying to Gabba about my penchant for uphill politico-ideological projects? Throw in a "fuck AIPAC, fuck small business" platform, and you're getting a sense of the entirely improbable path I'd like to see the Dems' socialist wing travel.

"With malice for being a sty:" Listening to Spiderland Horn

Clinton Pessimistic on Iran Outreach - washingtonpost.com
I was once a young man with squarely chopped locks. I was once an older man who sung about myself as a younger man. What's your bleeping provenance?

New spin on vinyl: Bundled MP3s - Mar. 2, 2009
Sometimes I think that the combination of bundled mp3s and the new Administration is enough to make 2009 one promising sunovabitch. Sometimes I stay out late and slippy-dip with the lads in the lanes.

Firedoglake » Things Rahm Left Out Of His Love Note To Himself
The Limits of a "3 Minute Rahm" in Obama's Kitchen Cabinet - The Washington Note
Are you an activist or an operator? Have you ever heard of the Tuxedo Killer, who would periodically require his victims to say "I love you" if they were to be afforded a merciful evisceration?

Very Few Small Business Owners Would Face Tax Increases Under President's Budget
I should start a distro operation that specializes in 7"s from 1990-1998, if only to honor this here lax tax.

NPA, "Let's Do It, like the Workers of Guadeloupe and Martinique!"
Once I heard a Castro-ite (?!?) from Dominica and an evangelical/black nationalist/Trot trade unionist from Guadeloupe debate whether I was an angel or just a "young man." This was next door to a barbed wire-d Club Med.
‘Socialism!’ Boo, Hiss, Repeat - NYTimes.com
Socialism is the new socialism, kids. Take the good with the bad: an exotic political desire called 'socialism' lives on, even in mainstream US newspapers. But it does so in the shape of an unconvincing, Hollywood movie shark.

Evo on the verge

Sure, Evo Morales' overwhelming recall victory and the subsequent fragmentation of Bolivia's 'opposition' are real, inspiring signs of the growing hegemony of indigenous democratic socialism in that country. But it's almost even crazier to read the Washington Post reporting the situation as such on the verge of a potentially page-turning referendum win for Morales' Movement Toward Socialism party. What can this possibly portend?

And then there's asides like this coming out of Evo: "Brothers and sisters, we have to guarantee this democratic revolution with Evo Morales or without Evo Morales.” Without slipping into anti-Chavez talking points, it's very hard to keep from contrasting Evo's call for "democratic revolution" with Chavez' relative inability to move "his" revolution past his own personality cult. Being who I am, I'm more prone to sociological/political explanation than moral/psychologial ones - even if I start sentences with essentialist statements like "being who I am" - but whether Chavez cannot or will not mobilize his socialist project beyond his own iconography, it does seem like he could take a lesson or two from the Evo/Alvaro-led MAS. [In my wildest dreams, David Plouffe would be watching these developments, aussi.]

[update, 1/26/2009: good guys win!]