>From: Doug Henwood <dhenwood at panix.com>
>To: lbo-talk at lists.panix.com <lbo-talk at lists.panix.com>
>I think it's yet another manifestation of the depressing centrism of the
>U.S. electorate
The chief architect of the attempted destruction of the Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security system gets deposed due to the mass mobilization of labor unions, blacks and youth, and it is read as "depressing"?
Newt lost not because Clinton has co-opted "the center." You snatch credit from the mass effort of tens of thousands of people who fought to dump Republicans across this country and thereby stunned the Republicans and media "experts."
You can argue that those grassroots activists are misguided and will rue their actions as ineffective (with which I disagree), but to give Clinton credit for this broad-based mobilization is ridiculous.
Obviously, this is all a relative win, since the Republicans hold a majority and, combined with New Democrats, have a substantial majority. But the mobilization that occurred this year, if continued, promise further gains if sustained.
And while folks relentlessly repeat that the two parties are the same, this ignores the half to two-thirds of the Democrats who vote pro-labor consistently, protect abortion rights, fight for affirmative action, and support the wide range of issues that our activists fight for day-to-day.
To ignore the difference in candidates means the equivalence of politicians who want to ban most strikes and corporate campaigns as equivalent to those who want to ban striker replacement by employers, equating those who want to throw abortion doctors in jail versus those who want to fund abortions for the poor, equating those who want to strip-mine national forests with those who want to ban clear-cutting of forests, equating those who want to eliminate the minimum wage with those who want to raise it.
This repeats an endless debate, but Doug, do you argue that all these labor voters and black voters are just stupid for turning out to dump these Republicans? Are they stupid to be happy that they were successful in this election and in forcing the Republicans to throw out their standard bearer?
--Nathan Newman