OK so this devil is one we must sup with, with a short spoon! It may be easier to expose his weakness and his dependence on capitalism, if people try to push him, on specific reasonable reforms. So don't lets ask for an outright gift from the US Treasury to save the Guatemalan rain forest, but agreement to a global currency trading tax, to preserve all the rain forests?? Could he refuse? And if he did, WHY would he refuse? what would be the class interests preventing him? Such a campaign could be valuable for both the short term goal and the longer terms strategy.
The European press is beginning to pick up on Gore. It is said he is vulnerable on campaign funds. Fine. The manipulation of the two party system by capitalist funders is one of the main levers of class power in these nominal democracies.
The US electoral system has changed a lot in the last 25 years. Most primaries were not done on the basis of prior votes. Most are now. The relentless squeeze for money to finance this is a source of much corruption. The trouble is that Clinton was not rich enough not to have to cut corners. If Gore is not to be crippled by sniping about this he would be wise to faciliate an initiative for a radical reform of this. This might be a good time for constitutional reformers to press their case. A legitimate campaign that could expose the capitalist nature of this democracy even more effectively to middle ground opinion than advertisements. Sounds good though if socialists are moving onto the offensive.
My hunch is that that even right wing Europeans do not mind where the US president gets his orgasms, but they do mind where he gets his votes. And what stands out are the business interests behind the gun legislation, and the business interests behind the weak US position on the environment. Gore will need to be forced by mass campaigning to implement his commitments on the environment. But his administration might half cooperate with an agenda about it.
Chris Burford.
London.