Word: explainers
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Dates: during 1980-1980
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...started to explain, but Kleindienst waved me off. "God," he said, "this is terrible. I can't imagine John Mitchell asking me to do a thing like that." Then, abruptly, his speech grew crisp again. "You tell whoever it was that John Mitchell knows me well enough to call me himself if he has anything more like that to say to me. And tell them I can't do it-won't do it. For the President's sake I'm going to handle this one just like any other case...
...worsening condition" and his trips to institutions. We learn only that Graham killed himself in 1963. If a desire not to dredge up unpleasant memories for the participants in Bray's excuse (and not a very good one) for his truncated discussion of Graham, it still doesn't explain his scanty attention to the players in his drama. Perhaps he chose to limit his profiles simply because he isn't very good at them; he favors cliches like "a fascination with power" and "pinnacle of the profession," and generally feels far more comfortable with straight narrative than character analysis...
...though, is the blatant corruption rampant among the big business elite. In recent years about 500 American firms have admitted to "illegal or improper payoffs abroad" totalling more than $1 billion. In addition, less obviously illegal--but often more harmful--acts result from unclear and unenforced regulation. Companies usually explain "chemical crime," the deliberate proliferation of toxic wastes and other chemicals into the environment, by pleading ignorance of the consequence of their actions. Ford Motor Company knew that Pintos often exploded on rear-end impact; Firestone failed to disclose evidence that its Radial 500 tires tended to belt-edge separation...
Although Harrington backs up his proposals with massive statistics and dense arguments, he doesn't explain how to marshal political support for his programs. Harrington admits that most Americans reject radical political reform; rather than decrying vast wealth, Americans still believe in Horatio Alger and want yachts for their children. Harrington demonstrates how many Americans are misinformed about the extent of economic inequality in the U.S. and the hopes for bettering it. He assumes that setting the record straight will convince Americans of the need for radical reform, creating a new coaliton of the lower middle class, the working class...
Harrington's analysis contains an important and troubling paradox. He consistently argues that America's problems are structural, but he rejects as politically impossible radical structural changes such as a complete overthrow of capitalism. He doesn't explain how he can accomplish the reforms he proposes--direct challenges to capitalist assumptions--without changing the capitalist system. As the example of the Allende government in Chile indicates, democratically-elected socialist governments may have to combat a lack of business confidence or outright business sabotage. As head of the Democratic Socialist Organizing Committee (DSOC), Harrington is committed to peaceful change and socialist...