Nation endorses wanker Mark Green for NYC mayor

[Michael Perelman]

Nathan, I just had two points to make regarding what I intended to say.
First, to the extent that the NRA voters are progressive working-class
people, then you get those votes with a progressive campaign, followed
with the enactment of progressive policies, not by pandering to right-wing
constituencies.  Second, I do not believe that Bush is better than Gore.
I think that the election is a multistage process.  Kick the Democrats in
the shins today, live with the Repugs for a bit, to make sure that the
Democrats cease to become a mere corporate fund raising organization.

On Tue, Aug 14, 2001 at 04:01:13PM -0400, Nathan Newman wrote:
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Michael Perelman" <michael at ecst.csuchico.edu>
> 
> 
> >Bad as Bush is, don't you agree that most of us would be disgusted with
> >the Gore administration by now, saying that Bush might as well have won.
> >Sure, Bush is terrible, even worse than expected, but unless we take our
> >"medicine" and punish the spineless Dems, they will continue chasing the
> >Repugs to the right in search of the elusive NRA vote.
> 
> Ahh, but that's exactly what I hope the Dems do.  Gun control is a pretty
> marginal issue to begin with and if it costs votes that would otherwise
> support stronger unions, better schools, more health insurance and generally
> more progressive economic policies, then dump it.  The "elusive NRA vote" is
> hardly elusive-- they are working class voters in many cases that support
> progressive issues in a number of areas but defect because of the gun issue.
> Disdaining getting those votes back to form a majority is exactly where
> progressives lose out.
> 
> And no way is it better that Bush won- the scale of the tax cut is an
> absolute disaster that is going to rip at social spending for the next few
> years.  We will end up with a weaker Patient Bill of Rights and a range of
> worse policies.
> 
> -- Nathan Newman
> 

-- 
Michael Perelman
Economics Department
California State University
Chico, CA 95929

Tel. 530-898-5321
E-Mail michael at ecst.csuchico.edu