Brad De long writes on this thread: "Yeah. During the two years that Moynihan had him hypnotized on domestic policy, Nixon wasn't bad..."
And he says on another note today: "Yes, if Davis is up by 5% among likely voters the weekend before election day, I'll vote for Hamburg.
But if Davis ain't up by 5%, I hope you'll be voting for Davis..."
Doyle I'm sure a lot of people feel like Brad in identifying with the Democratic party. I don't. I don't care if the demos lose elections any more. I'm sure there are people like Paul Henry Rosenberg who can find people like Paul Wellstone to vote for. However, as has been recently pointed out half of the country doesn't vote. Mostly and by far working class people. We need a working class party to put forward our interests. I'm glad Brad is here to make the case for staying in the democratic party as strongly as he can. It persuades no one here unless they were already entertaining those ideas. I don't care if Fong beats Boxer. All I care about is if my class gets enough strength to make the progress start happening for us. It won't happen in the demos. If they lose ground in the next election and the economy recesses because of Asia, working people will want an alternative, and they ain't going to blame the left for that loss. Let us give a good working class alternative to them. This debating grounds is where this fight is beginning. Go for it, let us make the working class proud and strong. Organize in whatever way is possible.
Brad, I think it is interesting indeed that you would vote for a green if you thought it were possible. That is opportunism as a voter. It shows even you have lost your compass as a demo. How soon before you make the transfer? I think not long after the economy gets bad. We just lack the strategic, and long term aims of an organization independent of the demos to make that happen. That is crucial. I don't think the current atmosphere impedes an political alternative at all. I don't feel pissed at you Brad as I have in the past. I can see the reality, and I hope my side prevails. Sometimes, in that process of making a serious break it will be that a lot of wavering happens over many months and years. That signals how out of kilter the situation is. Whatever the demos try I don't think they can offer any way to appease voters, because Clinton himself has poisoned the well for standard issue demo "centrism". Those halycon days of Clinton yore require a "good" economy. Let the moralizing Repubs gain hold, and their moral system will crumble away as the economy reveals how really tailored their ideas are for working people. Let them take the blame for the bad economic decisions. They want it, and yet they don't. That is why Clinton serves their needs. We (I mean the little sliver of progressives who might possibly decide these things) vote in the demos, and we get blamed for bad times. Let the conservatives justify unemployment. Etc.
regards, Doyle