> On Wed, 23 Sep 1998, Paul Henry Rosenberg wrote:
>
> > I'm 100% with you on sentiment--I left the Dems 4 years ago, and only
> > joined the party because of the apparent opening creted by Jesse
> > Jackson. (And I'll consider going back for Wellstone, if it's clear
> > that he's going to do serious long-term organizing.)
>
> To paraphrase Brecht, woe to the party which needs Kennedyesque leaders to
> do its thinking and activism for it.
Wellstone described as "Kennedyseque"! Now that is rich!
> The Dems are rotten to the core, my friend, and the last moment
> this strategy made sense was 1972 and the McGovern campaign.
It made sense in 1988, if Jackson had only been serious about the Rainbow Coalition. His campaign was more successful than Pat Robertson's by more than an order of magnitude, but Robertson was serious about building the Christian Coalition from his effort, Jackson was just funnin us. Had Jackson been serious, we would have had a truly significant national organization. Perhaps not left enough to be "truly" left, but a damn sight better than anything else we've had in a loooooong time.
What's so bad about trying to do that again????
What's so bad aobut learning to crawl before you learn to walk?
> The Left has got to do its *own* long-term organizing.
> Join the Labor Party or the Greens instead -- the planet you save may just
> be your own.
I'm registered Green right now. I was simply mentioning the possibility under which I could rejoin the Democrats. The point, it seems to me, is to work strategically. Any form is only a form. All have different sets of strengths and weaknesses to spend all our time arguing the strengths of one over the weaknesses of the others is to distract attention from the big picture of what needs to be done.
It's time we on the left learn ed to accept a diversity of approaches. People of good faith can choose different ways. If I were in New Mexico, where Green organizing is really making a difference, you can bet I'd be much more active as a party memeber, and would not be giving that much thought to Wellstone.
Here in California I'm steamed that Dan Hamburg isn't getting the media attention he deserves, but I see relatively little that my activism in that direction can accomplish compared to other things I can do with my limited time.
> > I am not at all confident that we can survive a full-fledge lurch WAY to
> > the right--which is what we face with the Clinton debacle.
>
> Debacle, my foot, he's doing just fine in the polls.
Sure, HE is.
But the Democratic Party is not, when you look at likely voters.
The Republicans are poisoning the public sphere, hoping to further depress turnout among everyone but their supporters. If they succede -- and there's VERY little to suggest that Dems are being very smart about this -- we could have veto-proof majorities for passing all kinds of hideous things.
And, of course, Clinton hmself will move FARTHER to the right--as he is on military spending--even as he's depending MORE on the left of his party for support. This in turn will further the momentum of the rightward lurch of the Republicans.
> Americans are just enjoying the spectacle of the Prez
> being called to account,
Hardly. They are saying, "Enough of this, Already!"
> because it's one of the few times they get to see our elites
> publicly trying to claw each other's eyes out.
And *I* worry about my own romanticizing tendencies!
> Plus, with all this Monanica going on, El
> Presidente is less able to do things like ravage Social Security.
That doesn't happen until AFTER the election. It was ALWAYS planned that way. If the Dems take heavy hits, the result will be even worse.
It's curious that on the one hand you're beratting me for even considering organizing within the Democratic Party, and telling me to go organize with the Labor Party or the Greens -- which necessitates a long-range outlook, while on the other hand you are telling me that there's no danger of a rightward lurch because the current short-term specatacle posses no IMMEDIATE danger. These two just do not fit together.
-- Paul Rosenberg Reason and Democracy rad at gte.net
"Let's put the information BACK into the information age!"