i'm going to bet the bottle of lagavullan that max owes me (and mark jones owes him) that next election, if the repukes keep it up, then the dipocrats will look golden and the bizzo about a clean break will be meaningless. which is not to say that i think we should support the dipocrats. rather, i just think that if y'all think that USers are going to come running in the arms of the left or Nader or a leftish third party, yer all nuttier than a squirrel's nest.
I sez:
I could accuse you of harboring a pessimistic attitude that only makes the weakness of the left and the absence of a vital and popular third party movement a self-fulfilling prophecy. But to do so would put me in ultra-bad faith, since I'm not actively involved in third party politics (more like dissertation procrastination), and since I also share your pessimism (if indeed I can take the liberty of characterizing your position as pessimistic). It's not only the fact that after four years of the Reagan Revolution redux the center-right will look preferable to the right-right. It's also the fact that w/o proportional representation, left-liberal trade unionists, feminists, greens, etc. who are disgusted w/the Democrats will nonetheless hold their nose at campaign and election time. But I won't make any predictions about what's going to happen in four years time, since in the last few months we've witnessed a virtual coup staged on behalf of the most reactionary sectors of capital, rolling blackouts in California, more deadly gunplay by white teenage nerds, early signs of a global overaccumulation crisis (i.e. world depression pre-Keynesian style), etc.
John Gulick