-----Original Message----- From: owner-lbo-talk at lists.panix.com [mailto:owner-lbo-talk at lists.panix.com]On Behalf Of Steve Perry Sent: Monday, August 14, 2000 9:26 AM To: lbo-talk at lists.panix.com Subject: RE: The Evil of Two Lessers?
funny--i think one of the reflexive motives of both major parties, so thoroughly conditioned that it's not particularly conscious anymore most of the time, is to *discourage* broader public participation in electoral politics, which would after all introduce an element of instability. and property party political economy being what it is, each would rather lose this or that election to the other than to undertake any gambits that might mobilize elements of the sleeping masses in any significant number.
-----Original Message----- From: owner-lbo-talk at lists.panix.com [mailto:owner-lbo-talk at lists.panix.com]On Behalf Of Doug Henwood Sent: Monday, August 14, 2000 9:09 AM To: lbo-talk at lists.panix.com Subject: Re: The Evil of Two Lessers?
Carrol Cox wrote:
>Doug Henwood wrote:
>
>>
>> It's pretty damn weird, considering that the moralists lost the
>> impeachment battle. Where's this shit coming from?
>
>Most political battles (electoral or non-electoral, left or right) are
>won not by reaching new people but by mobilizing the people one already
>has. (That number expands or contracts behind one's back, one's own
>actions not having much to do with it.) And in electoral politics that
>means getting people to vote -- which in turn requires generating
>enthusiasm and energy among the core cadre. Apparently, rightly or
>wrongly, Gore & Bush both think that the way to energize that cadre is
>through moralism.
To my previous I should add... Maybe the mainstreamers have a lesson for the radicals here - that energizing your core cadre isn't enough, and that you need to reach out for converts. Works for them; might work for us.
Doug