it's heating up

[Justin Schwartz]

I don't want to make a big deal out of this, but years of trying to 
copperate inside and out of the Dems have taught some of us that the 
cooperation is entirely one sided: your labor is appreciated, now shut up 
before you alienate "people" (i.e., campaign contributors). We _never_ get 
any nearer the halls of power and we _never_ affect policy. We just get 
used. I should explain that I learned thsi position from years of personal 
experience in the best possible circumstances for affecting DP politics. I 
did not start out from a Trot "plague on both your houses" point of view. My 
own conclusion is that a plague on both their houses is right. Third parties 
are just platforms to raise a fuss; the real action is in mass movements, 
and to hell with the Dems--they say the same about us, except when the vote 
is close. --jks


>From: Wojtek Sokolowski <sokol at jhu.edu>
>Reply-To: lbo-talk at lists.panix.com
>To: lbo-talk at lists.panix.com
>Subject: Re: it's heating up
>Date: Wed, 25 Oct 2000 09:49:37 -0400
>
>At 11:46 PM 10/24/00 -0400, John Halle wrote:
> >Hi Folks,
> >
> >Our local Green party office is going to be picketed tomorrow (according
> >to flyers) by a group which professes to want "to save the supreme court
> >from Bush appointees" based on the premise that "Nader is endangering the
> >Supreme Court and will bring Civil Rights back to 1950." Behind it,
> >apparently, is a local attorney with close ties to Lieberman.
> >
> >There have also been several reported incidents of Nader lawn signs 
>having
> >been stolen from front yards.
>
>
>I do not understand.  In any normal country (i.e. one with a true
>parliamentary system) a small party's wet dream is to enter into a
>coalition with a large party to form a government.  That means COOPERATION
>between a small party and a large party.
>
>In the US, which arguably has the least democratic political system among
>developed nations, a small party's need to cooperate with a large one is
>even greater, because absent a proportional representation system, a small
>party will not even register on a political radar screen by itself, let
>alone form a government.  What we see, however, is exactly the opposite -
>small parties trying to piss off the large ones as much as they can.  This
>appears to be self-defeating behavior, because in addition to reducing the
>small party's chance of getting near the halls of power to nil, it also
>alienates its potential allies.
>
>Is there anything I am missing here, or - putting it mildly - thinking
>strategically is not the strongest point of American politics, especially
>its left wing?
>
>wojtek
>
>
>
>

_________________________________________________________________________
Get Your Private, Free E-mail from MSN Hotmail at http://www.hotmail.com.

Share information about yourself, create your own public profile at 
http://profiles.msn.com.