"Since 1920, the vast increase in welfare beneficiaries and the extension of the franchise to women — two constituencies that are notoriously tough for libertarians — have rendered the notion of “capitalist democracy” into an oxymoron."
As a Marxist, I actually agree with his point here. Of course he was being provocative but I don't think malicious, not by any means.
He did not mean women should not have been given the vote. And "welfare beneficiaries" actually doesn't refer to minorities there (although they'd be included among the beneficiaries of the New Deal).
What he said and meant, translated into Leftist language, is that it was clear by the 1920s that there was no longer any hope for resolving the crisis of bourgeois democracy. In other words, democracy and capitalism had become contradictory, incompatible. That's true, and had been true long before 1920, but the concept of history he articulates isn't totally incorrect. At least he thinks.
It is worth noting that the 1920s was also the decade when the German Left collapsed, all but sealing the fate of the October Revolution with it. Theil misrecognizes history when he blames the failure of the bourgeois revolution on politics, but he isn't wrong to recognize the importance of the bourgeois revolution. He just doesn't go far enough--only the socialist revolution could fulfill the promises of the bourgeois revolution (Great French Revolution).
I give a sort of point-by-point critique of his essay here:
But even if you accept that "democracy and capitalism had become contradictory, incompatible" Theil favors the latter over the former. Bad feels ensue.
You're just posting bullshit lies about Thiel everywhere you can. He said it pretty explicitly:
> It would be absurd to suggest that women’s votes will be taken away or that this would solve the political problems that vex us. While I don’t think any class of people should be disenfranchised, I have little hope that voting will make things better.
He also points out that the "most intense reaction" was to the factual "commonplace statistical observation about voting patterns that is often called the gender gap".
Lying is one of the main reasons the Democrats lost. Learn something from their failure.
Wow. That is...troubling