This is not what I had in mind when I said that I believed that class politics "should be rethought in much more historically contingent, specific and determined ways," but I have no problems answering the question. I find myself somewhere in the vicinity of the positions articulated by Chip and Nathan.
I agree with Chip that real, significant policy differences will result from a Republican as opposed to a Democratic victory in the presidential elections, and therefore, that in competitive states, a vote for Gore is the appropriate position for progressives. This is especially true in the policy field which is of greatest concern to me, education, where a Bush victory would mean great advances for the forces of privatization and vouchers, and we would once again be fighting for our lives to even retain -- forget about improving -- a public education system that serves working class and poor children. The same argument could be made for other areas. There are a few policy areas where both Gore and Bush are clearly wrong (capital punishment), but in no meaningful respect do I see a case that can be made that a victory for Bush would be better for working and poor people even there. The clearest pattern of the last fifty years of US history is that the progressive movements advance under a Democratic presidency, and suffer setbacks under a Republican presidency.
Where a state is safe for either Gore or Bush, a voter has a pass, and an ideological vote for either Nader or McReynolds is perfectly fine.
I agree with Nathan that when one is rooted in real and mass progressive movements and forces, a strictly ideological position in elections is a luxury which can not be afforded. There are real stakes in who wins, and -- quite frankly -- only students, academics and rootless intellectuals can pooh-pah those stakes as insignificant. That is why none of the mass left, those with real constituencies they represent, are dismissive of the need to elect the least reactionary and conservative/most progressive forces possible. By contrast, the 'organized self-conscious left,' which is almost entirely based in academia and among intellectuals, has a rather different take on things, since they are so insulated from the attacks on public education, health care, union rights, etc. which will result from Republican ascendency.
Leo Casey United Federation of Teachers 260 Park Avenue South New York, New York 10010-7272 (212-598-6869)
Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never has, and it never will. If there is no struggle, there is no progress. Those who profess to favor freedom, and yet deprecate agitation are men who want crops without plowing the ground. They want rain without thunder and lightening. They want the ocean without the awful roar of its waters. -- Frederick Douglass --