I hope this pandemic settles the “the two parties are the same” bs for good. Marxian frameworks that reduce the state to an instrument of capitalist rule fail to see the important distinction that Weber drew btw charismatic and traditional authority vs legal-rational. https://twitter.com/mattyglesias/status/1246423358562058241

The paradox however is the more you rely on legal-rational authority , the more disenchanted the ruled gets. This in turn opens up a window of opportunity for a charismatic figure such as Trump to exploit the ruled’s thirst for meaning and enchantment. Once the charismatic ruler

takes over, he hollows out the bureaucracy upon which legal-rational authority depends, since traditional authority through patrimonial relationships is how he rules. Yet, once a crisis hits, Bc he destroyed the bureaucracy and Bc he relies on his chronies, the crisis becomes

a governance crisis. Of course then he doubles down on his charismatic authority to divert attention from the crisis, perpetuating the real crisis further. The only way to get out of this cycle is to find an alternative source of charismatic authority, one that will not simply

defer to legal-rational authority like Hillary tried to do and Biden is attempting by saying “I will defer to scientists”, but someone who can harness science and legal-rational rule into a hopeful vision of the future upon which trust can be reestablished btw the ruler and ruled

That’s why I have such hopes for someone like @AOC who seems to understand the importance of translating expert advise into charismatic authority without reducing the latter into a tyranny of truth.