Put me down for "nobody has a reliable theory of politics...

Put me down for "nobody has a reliable theory of politics", and make it a true Daily Double, Alex: Cosma Shalizi (2011): Harmony of Means and Ends: "If I tried to back out a theory of politics from the practice of left neo-liberals, it would something like this: what matters most to the interest of voters is the over-all growth of the economy; as it grows, they will become more prosperous, and reward the political party which implemented those policies. They will also be willing to support unobtrusive welfare-state measures, especially if they look like they are run efficiently and go to the truly deserving, because prosperous people feel generous. So the most important thing is 'the economy, stupid', and making sure the voters know who is responsible for good economic times.... It seems oddly naive.... All of this can be boiled down to... 'When you tell us that (1) the important thing is to maximize economic growth, and never mind the distributional consequences because (2) we can always redistribute through progressive taxation and welfare payments, you are assuming a miracle in step 2'.... There are I think two reasonable defenses left neoliberals could make. One is to say that creating or strengthening any forms of countervailing power under modern American conditions would itself take a miracle.... The other would be to deny that anyone has a reliable theory of politics, in this sense, certainly none which could be used as a guide to action, and no hope of developing one; whereas we do know a bit about economics...

#noted