>Why the insane impulse to denigrate the motives of a range of impeccably
>progressive activists who worked to create the Working Families Party. Yes,
>you disagree with the strategy - so noted, but the "pwogwessives" and
>"hacks" comment is just intellectually bankrupt and plain nasty.
Nasty, but not bankrupt. There are "impeccably progressive activists" who constitute the "footsoldiers" (see article at URL below for the context of this word) of the WFP, but it's the brainchild of Dan Cantor, New Party national organizing supremo, and a bunch of union/Dem strategists. I'm very happy they're doing a living wage campaign, but as an electoral vehicle, they're an express train to the status quo.
What precisely has HRC done to un-earn the label "hack"? What does she stand for? What has she ever done? I believe that Sheehy argues in her HRC bio that Hillary has actually pulled Bill to the right over the years - exactly the opposite of what all those deluded souls that Slivka was writing about probably think.
>Aside from the obvious lesser-evilism of fearing another vote to support
>Trent Lott's filibusters in the Senate
Oh yes. Vote for Hillary or the brownshirts are around the corner. This is the fallback strategy of every Democratic apologist. Meanwhile, HRC supports capital punishment, welfare reform, and the drug war. The minimal standards of liberalism get lower every year.
>The interesting place to judge the WFP will be their more local races-- how
>they use endorsements of Dems or independents to influence politics
>throughout the state. Give it at least one or two election cycles before
>you piss on other peoples strategies.
This is exactly the same crowd that brought us the Dinkins endorsement in '93 <http://www.panix.com/~dhenwood/New-Party.html> and the Vallone endorsement in '98. Democratic strategists who surface every election year and come up with a new scheme to get pwogs to pull the Dem lever. And it sucks every time, too. They've had many chances.
>And how running Granpa Lewis advances progressive or left politics is beyond
>me.
For one, Grandpa's a smart fellow and with pretty good politics, and he fits right in with your celebrity ballot-line-snagging strategy. Because of his gubernatorial run, the Green Party has a ballot line in NYS.
Doug