Meadowlark bird on red background with cream text that reads the meadowlark flint hills chapter of DSA newsletter
Tuesday, October 7, 2025

“Liberals and most progressives don’t do a full power-structure analysis because, consciously or not, they accept the kind of elite theory of power that Mills popularized. They assume elites will always rule. At best, they debate how to replace a very naughty elite with a “better” elite, one they “can work with,” who wants workers to have enough money to shop the CEOs out of each crisis they create, who will give them a raise that they will spend on consuming goods they probably don’t need. The search for these more friendly elites frames the imagination of liberals and progressives. An elite theory of power for well-intentioned liberals leads to the advocacy model; an elite theory of power for people further left than liberals – progressives.”

Jane McAlevey

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Cream logo of the Flint Hills Chapter of Democratic Socialists of America