A policy conceived before the 1960s, imbued with an explicitly Hamiltonian ethos, becomes the object of Jeffersonian ire. Well-intentioned reformers then begin to conceive of ways to push that centralized power down and out—to disrupt the Establishment’s hold on its victims. In order to manacle the octopus, reformers work to endow the victims of the old regime with new rights—leverage of the kind Charles Reich conjured in “The New Property.” Last, amid generalized frustration with the end result, government is made to appear generally, and
Why Nothing Works: Who...
