Posted on 05/17/2010 6:38:50 AM PDT by maggief
Elena Kagan's 1981 Princeton thesis is now lodged, over Princeton's objections (though the White House says it will released a copy) on Scribd, and worth a read.
It hews, largely, to the description her adviser, Sean Wilentz, gave me the other day: A study in the "futility of dogma."
The thesis is a piece of history, quite good, and quite confident in dismissing the opinions of scholars of the movement like Daniel Bell. Kagan argues that, contrary to his opinion and others', external events like the Russian Revolution only gave a final push to a movement that was already tottering because of "sectarianism and dissension." And she writes with a tone that occasionally sounds like disdain of the petty quarrels that impeded practical goals like settling strikes and improving the "horrendous" conditions (a fair description) under which New York City garment workers labored in the early part of the century.
She does write from a general sympathetic position: The story, she concludes, is "a sad but also a chastening one for those who, more than half a century after socialisms decine, still wish to change America." The lesson: "In unity lies their only hope."
And if there is a takeaway for the Kagan of today, I think it's that practical-minded conclusion, and the sense that she is, in the end -- and like Obama -- a very practical pol.
Politico is still the good little 0bot drone site.
Kagan’s “sympathetic” thesis on Socialism proves she’s a moderate.
These people are D-lusional.
I feel the throwup now. These people are such liars
“And if there is a takeaway for the Kagan of today, I think it’s that practical-minded conclusion, and the sense that she is, in the end — and like Obama — a very practical pol.”
Did Axelrod or Rahm write that for Ben?
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.