Politics 101: Walter Karp and Power Elite Analysis

For forty years I have been an enthusiastic fan and promoter of the works of the great Walter Karp. Karp was a masterful prose writer and political analyst, a true Jeffersonian republican and foe of the plutocratic oligarchy which has dominated our nation-state since its inception. In such uncompromising works as Indispensable Enemies: The Politics of Misrule, The Politics of War: The Story of Two Wars Which Altered Forever the Political Life of the American Republic, Liberty Under Siege: American Politics 1976-1988, and Buried Alive: Essays on Our Endangered Republic, Karp demonstrated his unparalleled ability to accurately see and cogently describe the raw essence of political power. His works are therefore essential to understanding power elite analysis. Nicholas Strakon has written a powerful, penetrating critique of Karp’s Indispensable Enemies, which is also deeply appreciative of his path-breaking analytical genius, describing Karp as “a political Galileo and Linnaeus.” Strakon’s essay also draws upon such necessary works as Murray N. Rothbard’s “Wall Street, Banks, and American Foreign Policy,” G. William Domhoff’s The Powers That Be, James Burnham’s The Machiavellians: Defenders of Freedom, and Walter E. Grinder and John Hagel III, “Toward a Theory of State Capitalism: Ultimate Decision-Making and Class Structure.” In these heated days of campaign 2012, with machinations, manipulations, and egregious frauds being inflicted upon Ron Paul’s noble candidacy, a quick review of Politics 101 via Walter Karp and power elite analysis is called for by all LRC readers.

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12:08 pm on March 11, 2012