Powell Memorandum at 50

[David Horn]

(08-23-2021, 09:33 PM)beechnut79 Wrote: A half century ago today, August 23, 1971, Lewis Powell, who would later become a Supreme Court Justice, issued a memorandum advocating ever increasing corporate domination over many aspects of American life. It took a full decade, but in the same month of 1981 Reagan fired all the members of the Air Traffic Controllers union, which in many ways proved to be perhaps the final nail in the coffin of the middle class as we had to come to know it in the years following WWII.

Have created this thread for thoughtful discussion on the continuing impact of excessive corporate dominance in our lives. Do we have the will to begin reversing the trend of the havoc such power has garnered. Even if so, we have much to do. While sentiment that things are not right finally seems to have emerged, there is still work involved. Do we have the will to get grounded in the effort and build something of value?

I'm not sure how we get on a better path, because a return to the old is a non-starter.  The economy and society in general have moved on to the point that the pre-Reagan era now looks and feels archaic.  Yet we need to do something, and that something has to involve a permanent reduction in the power available to the monied class.  Needless to say, we're in Congressional Amendment territory here, and the numbers for getting that done are dismal.

Powell understood the power dynamic.  If the rich and already powerful are given a free hand, it will be exceptionally difficult to pry that power back into the hands of 'we the people'.  I suspect this will be the next saeculum's mission.