Where Do We Go from Here?: American Democracy and the Renewal of the Radical Imagination

226 Pages·2010·3.084 MB·English

by  Mark Major (editor)

Where Do We Go from Here?
Logos
Perspectives on Modern Society and Culture
Michael J. Thompson, Series Editor
The books in the Logos series examine modern society, politics,
and culture, emphasizing the connections between these spheres
rather than their academic separateness. Skeptical of what current
intellectual trends call "interdisciplinary," titles in this series ex-
plore the ways that politics, economics, and culture inform one an-
other, overlap, and weave the complex fabric of modern life in a
global context. By putting forth bold ideas written to appeal to a
broad range of interests, the series situates itself within the long
tradition of intelligent social critique.
Islam and the West
Critical Perspectives on Modernity
Edited by Michael J. Thompson
Maverick Voices
Conversations with Political and Cultural Rebels
Edited by Kurt Jacobsen
Planetary Politics
Human Rights, Terror, and Global Society
Edited by Stephen Eric Bronner
Communicative Action
The Logos Interviews
Edited by Amy L. Buzby
Where Do We Gof rom Here?
American Democracy and the Renewal of the Radical Imagination
Edited by Mark Major
Where Do We Go from Here?
American Democracy and the
Renewal of the Radical Imagination
Edited by Mark Major
LEXINGTOBNO OKS
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British Library Cataloguing in Publication Information Available
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Where do we go from here? : American democracy and the renewal of the radical
imagination 1 edited by Mark Major.
p. cm. - (Logos : perspectives on modem society and culture)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-7391-3717-8 (cloth : alk. paper) -ISBN 978-0-7391-3718-5 (pbk. : alk.
paper)
1. United States-Politics and government-1989- 2. Democracy-United States. I.
Major, Mark, 1980-
JK1726.W44 2010
320.973-dc22 2010001602
ern
The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of American
National Standard for Information Sciences-Permanence of Paper for Printed Library
Materials. ANSUNISO 239.48-1992.
Printed in the United States of America
Contents
Acknowledgments vii
Introduction: Where Do We Go from Here? 1
Mark Major
Part I: The Global Imagination
1 Democracy, Foreign Policy, and War
Stephen Eric Bronner
2 Immigration Policy: A View from the Left
Ron Hayduk
Part 11: The Domestic Policy Imagination
3 From Private Profits to Public Goods? A Human Rights
Assessment of Health Care Reform 49
Anja Rudiger
4 Higher Education: Reclaiming the University as a Democratic
Public Sphere 7 1
Henry A. Giroux
5 The Death and Life of Great American Newspapers
John Nichols and Robert W. McChesney
6 Charlie Brown, Machiavelli, and Labor's Passive Revolution 95
Robert Fitch
Part 111: Beyond Policy
7 Radical Feminism in the Age of Choice
R. Claire Snyder-Hall
8 Religion, Spirituality, and the Progressive Imagination 137
Sheila D. Collins
9 Race and Democracy: The American Oxymoron
Stephen Steinberg
10 Sketching a More Progressive Public Philosophy: The Theory of
Republican Modernity
Michael J. Thompson
Index
About the Contributors
Acknowledgments
I am grateful to the contributors for their interest, enthusiasm, and generosity
with the project. In addition to the contributors, this edited volume benefited
from conversations with Erin Heidt-Forsythe, Rebekah Amos, Robert Jensen,
Donald Leonard, Dave Lindorff, Michael McGandy, Ben Pauli, Frances Fox
Piven, Kevin Watkins, and my parents. Erin deserves extra praise for reading
numerous drafts of the manuscript and serving as an excellent sounding board.
Also, many thanks to my editor, Joseph Pany, and editorial assistants, Tawnya
Zengierski, Jana Wilson, and Abigail Graber, as well as Victoria Koulakjian,
Sarah Caldwell, and Michael Wiles in production, for their help and patience. I
owe a big thank you to Gokce Baykal for compiling the index. Finally, special
thanks to Michael Thompson for his encouragement throughout the entire
process and making this edited volume a reality. Much obliged.
vii

Introduction
Where Do We Go from Here?
Mark Major
More than seventy years ago, the economist John Maynard Keynes remarked
that the ideas of intellectuals were "more powerful than is commonly unders-
tood. Indeed the world is ruled by little else."' As technology continues to ena-
ble greater access to ideas around the world, the power of intellectuals is greater
than ever. And given that the world is full of crushing poverty, sexism, uneven
development, environmental degeneration, religious fanaticism, racism, and
imperialism, the need for intellectuals to inspire the radical imagination by
championing principles of economic and social justice, democracy, and univer-
sality is also greater than ever. Frederick Douglass correctly asserted that "pow-
er concedes nothing without a demand" because progress, in any form, requires
work. However, political visions are required to guide that struggle. This is the
aim of the book.
Imaginations and visions matter. They point forward. They provoke thought
and challenge underlying assumptions. The current political landscape in the
United States consists of rampant economic, gender, and racial inequalities,
shoddy infrastructure, declining public engagement, hyper-consumption and
individualism, and politics that emphasize the trivial. Much of this is a product
of the corrosive effects of neoliberalism and the new conservati~m.W~ hile the
2008 presidential campaign seemed to indicate disillusionment with this public
philosophy and political project, it certainly did not translate into immediate
success for progressives. In fact, the current political environment is, in part, a
consequence of the Left's inability to forge new paradigms for democratic life.
As a result, we are experiencing the decline of the radical imagination.
The paucity of the radical imagination should be viewed as a crisis to those
who value substantive democratic politics. The Left has yet to understand the
consequences of defining itself solely by what it is against rather than what it is
for. Unquestionably, identifying problems is crucial. However, locating the
problem does not necessarily render the identification of solutions. The failure to
search for solutions is irresponsible and dangerous as it negates agency for ac-
tion and leads to a society of cynics. Though recent criticism regarding the value
of social sciences is superficial, there is a legitimate concern relating to the de-
gree of scholarly engagement with politics. In the classic essay, "The Responsi-