> -----Original Message-----
> From: owner-lbo-talk at lists.panix.com
> [mailto:owner-lbo-talk at lists.panix.com]On Behalf Of Michael Pugliese
>>I will step to the front of the line to denounce any Democrat who tried to
>> red-bait or denigrate one of their candidates as a strategy to destroy their
>> challenge.
> Start with California Democratic party official, Bob Mulholland, dirty
> trickster maximus. When Audie Bock, ran as a Green party challenger, and won
> a seat in the California State Assembly representing a district that
> lackluster, , looonnggggtimmmmme, party hack,centrist, Elihu Harris, was
> trying to reclaim, Mulholland pulled all the stops. Job offers to Greens,
> money to betray political comrades and principles.A patronizing, get out the
> vote coupon of a free bucket of fried chicken from KFC. Probably wasn't even
> a big bucket to boot, I'd be surprised if it was more than a right wing.
> BTW, Audie is now an independent, have to
> call a Green party organizer I know from way back to find out why.
Umm...nasty political campaigning and offering jobs to people is not red-baiting or cop-baiting.
And Audie Bok is now an independent because she betrayed her Green Party backers. I'm good friends with people who helped run her campaign (it's where I lived for eight years)-- she sold them out. They are pissed as hell at her.
The fact that the first Green Party candidate elected to a state legislature, in one of the most if not the most left-leaning districts in the country, started acting immediately like any other politician is just more evidence to me why third party strategies are so silly. Politicians act to get reelected. Period. Not always out of greed or malfeasance, since they often feel "I can't help anyone if I'm not here" but they will always bend to the political winds. As I remember Roberto Mondragon, former Democrat and Green Party candidate for governor in New Mexico, recently started playing footsy with the Republicans in that state.
Sticking a Green Party, Labor Party, or even Socialist Party label on a politicians won't change basic realities of poltical opportunism.
There may be a case for the symbolism of a lot of people voting a certain way -- "it sends a message" and all that, but I would rather send my messages in rallies, petitions and mass strikes, and use my vote to get the least worst candidate we can strategically at any point.
I absolutely agree with the comments that it is the social forces in the streets that ultimately determine how the legislature votes, but at the margin a lot of issues are decided by how well progressive forces did in getting a few more or a few less decent votes.
I wish all the energy spent uselessly on these third party campaigns would be spent winning Democratic primaries for the same people, so that we could vote for them without helping to elect a Republican.
-- Nathan Newman