TOWARD A NEO-POPULIST FEDERALIST REVOLUTION
It's
inadvertently good politically that Trump is turning control of the
re-opening of the economy over to the states. It throws some light on
the capacity of the states to take control of their own destiny and work
with other states to re-empower local regions, communities and
economies.
It serves the Neo-populist Federalist task of
deconstructing the bureaucratic-technocratic managerial elite in
Washington and in the two parties-- the New Class of managerial
liberals. It's task is thereby to destroy Centralist elitist control of
our democratic culture. Such de-constructive, de-centralization is the
task of the revolution of the localities, regions and states, that is,
the vision of the revolution of "neo-populist federalism." This
revolution is based on the principle of subsidiarity, in short, meaning
"what can be done at home, should be done at home." By logical
extension, what an individual can do for him- or herself should be done
by the same, not by the State, the 'Feds,' the specialists, experts and
professionals. The re-constitution of individuality is the third task of
this vision of revolution.
Neo-populism is conservative and
progressive but not "left-wing" or "right-wing" in terms of the
conventional usage of these relatively meaningless terms, meaningless in
the sense of their uselessness in understanding and mediating
progressive change.
Neo-populist Federalism is a genuine
re-democratization of communities; it is thereby also the subjective
re-empowerment of political ingenuity down to the level of the
individual.
So, in summary, this new revolution involves three
simultaneous projects: First, the de-constructive de-centralization of
the Bureaucratic-Technocratic Managerial New Class elite in Washington
and thereby in the two party-system. Secondly, the re-constitution of
democratic control by re-appropriating state, regional and local
community autonomy and self-responsibility. Thirdly it means
reconstituting being a democratic citizen grounded in the primacy of
local culture and community. All three of these projects are a function
of the principle of subsidiarity. Democracy, autonomy, moral
responsibility grows from the ground up, from local multi-cultural
democratic communities.
This revolution flies in the face of mass
mediated, big money dominated pseudo-democracy. It flies in the face of
a two party system controlling candidate selection and platform
determination. Such a system is a cancerous tumor lodged in Washington,
seeded throughout the country through the blood and lymph of
Republicanism and Democratism, enervating the voice, the will and the
democratic confidence of the people.
Populism in its authenticity
is neither left-wing socialist/communist revolutionism nor right-wing
alt-right reaction. A true Populism is an organic vision of faith in the
people. It aims to move beyond the wish and hope for a benign Big
Brother. It gives up the hope for some Big-Other-technocratic messiah to
do the work of the people from above, from outside their own local
sovereignties. It seeks to transcend and thereby to enervate and destroy
the hegemony of the New Class Puppet-masters pulling the strings of
finance, profit, mass media ideology/ propaganda and tax parasitism,
militarism and the bio-political invasion of bodily sovereignty and
choice.
Neo-populist Federalism aims to de-colonize communities,
the practice of democracy, the education of the people and the
subjective power of individuals to create values worth living for, and a
culture beyond commercialism, the mass aesthetics of
Hollywood/TV/Internet, capitalist possessive individualism and a
de-spiritualized relation to nature.
This revolutionary program
is obviously a work in progress. But as Nietzsche insisted, we need to
step outside the "city" to see how bad it is and what needs to be done.
This project, vision and program intends such a comprehensive critical perspective on
politics, revolution, democracy and the people.
