New Republic: The Right’s War Against Liberal Democracy

[Virginiá]

Nancy MacLean discusses her new book about James McGill Buchanan, who helped shape the modern right’s antipathy toward democracy itself.

https://newrepublic.com/article/143561/rights-war-liberal-democracy

You must be logged in to read this quote.

These quotes are from the one-on-one interview with the author:

You must be logged in to read this quote.

You must be logged in to read this quote.

Thoughts?

[Antonio the Sixth]

FA. Horrifying, but not that surprising.

[Mr. Reactionary]

You must be logged in to read this quote.

Tin foil hat alert.

[FEMA Camp Administrator]

I read a book by MacLean on the Second Klan for a grad class. Good stuff, analysis-wise, though a tad agenda-heavy.

[Nyvin]

The natural state of the world will always be the super-powerful (rich) wanting to gain more and more power and eventually take over the governments of countries to become dictators.   This has been happening for centuries.   Democracy is a relatively new concept that's not entirely proven unbeatable for them.

[Reaganfan]

Wouldn't mass deregulation, less outsourcing, de-micro-management and tuning down political correctness (H.R. departments, management downsizing, ect) actually lessen the power of big corporations?

[pbrower2a]

It took over 200 years for the anti-human Right to game the system to their political advantage, and now they have succeeded. Government by lobbyist is as undemocratic as the Soviet system.

[Person Man]

Wouldn't mass deregulation, less outsourcing, de-micro-management and tuning down political correctness (H.R. departments, management downsizing, ect) actually lessen the power of big corporations?

Depends on what you mean "tuning down political correctness". Mass deregulation and less outsourcing are contradictory.

Wouldn't...tuning down political correctness (H.R. departments, management downsizing, ect) actually lessen the power of big corporations?

Sounds like you've had some run ins with your HR department.

Yeah. If people can't work because you are complaining about say... reverse racism or how homeless people should just grab a shovel and start diggin' ditches instead of panhandling, and your soapbox is getting disruptive...well, what would you do if you were the manager?
I mean, that's the goal of all Junior Republicans, right?

[Reaganfan]

Wouldn't...tuning down political correctness (H.R. departments, management downsizing, ect) actually lessen the power of big corporations?

...

Not at all, but I don't believe it exists. I did some research and discovered that it's a rather new thing. New things can be dismantled. It used to be called "personnel" in the day, and was basically a white door with black letters that read "personnel" where people smoked cigarettes, drank coffee, and had flings. I don't believe in wasting money to have careers in fields which essentially serve no purpose.

[TheSaint250]

The f*** is this

[TheSaint250]

I'm getting sick of this "the right is attacking democracy" bulls***. I wish these writers at New Republic and everywhere else for that matter would grow a pair and shut the f*** up

[Reaganfan]

Wouldn't...tuning down political correctness (H.R. departments, management downsizing, ect) actually lessen the power of big corporations?

...

Not at all, but I don't believe it exists. I did some research and discovered that it's a rather new thing. New things can be dismantled. It used to be called "personnel" in the day, and was basically a white door with black letters that read "personnel" where people smoked cigarettes, drank coffee, and had flings. I don't believe in wasting money to have careers in fields which essentially serve no purpose.

...

I would never have that occur, but sure I would. I have no fear or shame. Remember, I don't take anything or anyone seriously whom wouldn't have been taken seriously in the past.

I believe "departments" were created like this out of fear of companies being sued by lawyers and trivial lawsuits. So the first thing we need to do is gut the civil court system (which is not criminal justice system, BTW) so that lawyers have less leeway with regards to lawsuits against companies and corporations. We also should dismantle all human resource departments and rid colleges of courses in this field.

Once you do that, you'll begin to notice less of a burden on employees and faculties across the country.

[pbrower2a]

Wouldn't...tuning down political correctness (H.R. departments, management downsizing, ect) actually lessen the power of big corporations?

...

Not at all, but I don't believe it exists. I did some research and discovered that it's a rather new thing. New things can be dismantled. It used to be called "personnel" in the day, and was basically a white door with black letters that read "personnel" where people smoked cigarettes, drank coffee, and had flings. I don't believe in wasting money to have careers in fields which essentially serve no purpose.

I remember when the Personnel Department in most companies was a sick joke -- the sort of place where people gravitated if they could do little but couldn't be fired. You know -- the salesman losing his touch, the fellow with forty years of loyal and devoted service who was going senile, or the fellow who started drinking a but too heavily to go out on the road... One of their biggest tasks was to consign letters from job applicants that read something like

PERSONAL
XTZ Corporation
Box 1200
Chicago 17, Illinois

to "File 13".

Get it? That was before zip codes. That's when smoking was acceptable and normal in business settings. "Personal" without a name attached was stupid. "Personal" with a name attached was probably a hustle, like an offer of a personal loan for usurious interest to 'sophisticated executives".

[Reaganfan]

Wouldn't...tuning down political correctness (H.R. departments, management downsizing, ect) actually lessen the power of big corporations?

...

Not at all, but I don't believe it exists. I did some research and discovered that it's a rather new thing. New things can be dismantled. It used to be called "personnel" in the day, and was basically a white door with black letters that read "personnel" where people smoked cigarettes, drank coffee, and had flings. I don't believe in wasting money to have careers in fields which essentially serve no purpose.

I remember when the Personnel Department in most companies was a sick joke -- the sort of place where people gravitated if they could do little but couldn't be fired. You know -- the salesman losing his touch, the fellow with forty years of loyal and devoted service who was going senile, or the fellow who started drinking a but too heavily to go out on the road... One of their biggest tasks was to consign letters from job applicants that read something like

PERSONAL
XTZ Corporation
Box 1200
Chicago 17, Illinois

to "File 13".

Get it? That was before zip codes. That's when smoking was acceptable and normal in business settings. "Personal" without a name attached was stupid. "Personal" with a name attached was probably a hustle, like an offer of a personal loan for usurious interest to 'sophisticated executives".

Yeah, it's really a joke. I would start by ripping apart the EEOC, which I'm surprised wasn't done under the Reagan Administration. Once you do that, it would snowball downhill. It's unlikely, sadly, but doable if we had the will to do it.

[🐒Gods of Prosperity🔱🐲💸]

Seems rather confused.  Rothbard was completely different from Buchanan in their approaches. Calhoun didn't view private economic relations as unexploitative; he viewed exploitation as unavoidable in any political economy, in a way very different from some of the almost utopian language about capitalism on the modern 'neoliberal' right.  He surely did not invent the idea that property rights were the most fundamental assurance of liberty and that unbridled majority rule represented a threat to it. Hamilton, among many others in the republican tradition, said the same thing, but I guess that didn't make the musical. 

Here's this article about Buchanan, that discusses his economic and political theory, or look at The Calculus of Consent.  Does McLean believe that emphasizing strong constitutions over majority rule is opposed to liberal democracy?

[The_Doctor]

Wouldn't...tuning down political correctness (H.R. departments, management downsizing, ect) actually lessen the power of big corporations?

...

Not at all, but I don't believe it exists. I did some research and discovered that it's a rather new thing. New things can be dismantled. It used to be called "personnel" in the day, and was basically a white door with black letters that read "personnel" where people smoked cigarettes, drank coffee, and had flings. I don't believe in wasting money to have careers in fields which essentially serve no purpose.

...

I wonder if he tried to emulate his hero's conduct with women and got written up for it and this led to this dislike of HR? Of course that's just uh, hypothetical.

[Chancellor Tanterterg]

I'm getting sick of this "the right is attacking democracy" bulls***. I wish these writers at New Republic and everywhere else for that matter would grow a pair and shut the f*** up

The world is not your private safe space. 

[Nyvin]

Wouldn't mass deregulation, less outsourcing, de-micro-management and tuning down political correctness (H.R. departments, management downsizing, ect) actually lessen the power of big corporations?

So what restrictions would corporations have on things like child labor or fair wages or polluting local water sources then?   Or are you suggesting we go back to the 19th century when all that stuff was just a free for all?

I imagine in the modern age that would be quite catastrophic.   

[Cory]

I'm getting sick of this "the right is attacking democracy" bulls***. I wish these writers at New Republic and everywhere else for that matter would grow a pair and shut the f*** up

This post isn't actually helping your case.

[Virginiá]

The title is sensational, but at the same time, when the party has been making big pushes to restrict access to voting for a decade now, and has been strongly pushing a philosophy that basically amounts to letting corporations do whatever they want, and restricting voters ability to reign in business interests, then yes, I think it should be worthy of discussion of exactly what kind of system these particular conservatives want. I mean, they seem to want only people who support their causes voting and are willing to use their existing power to push for that. They seem to only support local power when it suits their interests, and they are using their existing power to suppress the ability to govern locally (or federally). And it is awfully convenient that their agenda is so business friendly that its nearly indistinguishable from the goals a business would have when bribing lawmakers and other politicians.

At what point does this stop?

[Sumner 1868]

Liberal democracy has never been democratic enough.

[Hammy]

I'm getting sick of this "the right is attacking democracy" bulls***. I wish these writers at New Republic and everywhere else for that matter would grow a pair and shut the f*** up

That "people who I disagree with need to shut up" philosophy is exactly the problem here.

[Suburbia]

Libertarians do exist. There is a reason why there is a Libertarian Party. I know lots of them. Academics need to go out of the academic world and meet people of different political affiliations.

[Virginiá]

Libertarians do exist. There is a reason why there is a Libertarian Party. I know lots of them. Academics need to go out of the academic world and meet people of different political affiliations.

They exist, but in very small numbers. It's not like Johnson built an army of Libertarians last year. He was the winner of a large number of disillusioned young(ish) voters, and it will be hard to replicate that kind of success unless the major party choices continue to suck.

I mean, it's not like Libertarians should expect much more. Their debate was ludicrous, and highly unprofessional. Not a very good image for their party, that's for sure.

[MasterJedi]

Amusing, but extremely sad how Naso thinks HR departments just deal with "PC" issues and sexual harassment/racism etc.