On Wednesday, February 6, 2002, at 05:22 PM, Doug Henwood wrote:
> Nathan Newman wrote:
>
>> All I note is John Halle's typical abuse of anyone who disagrees with
>> Green
>> strategy. I don't go around attacking the integrity of Green
>> advocates (some
>> of them are my best friends), just their strategic choices.
>>
>> But the ability of many leftists to continually insult anyone who
>> disagrees
>> with or questions their strategy is why the left is so marginal.
>>
>> And the guy was opportunistic enough to call me asking me to help him
>> on his
>> election.
>
> I feel your pain, Nathan - I think you're anything but a dishonest
> hack, and I don't approve of the attribution - but he rather
> convincingly refuted several of your major criticisms: the whitness of
> the Greens and their voters, the liberality of the Dems they've
> defeated, the effects on surviving Dems, the political profile of New
> Haven, etc. Soooo. just what's wrong with Greens running for City
> Council, anyway?
>
to which i would add nathan's characterization of "third-party theologians" as, well, dishonest hacks, though not in so many words:
"That's how this third party theology works-- every empirical prediction or measure of success is subject to ex post facto recanting. It's the definition of theology by faith in which there are no testable propositions put forward that are ever held up as ways to disprove the argument."
give a little, get a little.
john offered some pretty straightforward facts and nathan only found it in himself to get all "high road." maybe one reason the left is so marginal is that democrat apologists, like the presidential candidate they supported, can only talk about left third parties as if they're buchanan wearing different colors.
speaking of that candidate, maybe if he wanted a few more votes he could have taken a few more strides to the right, since that seems to be where most democrats these days think the votes are.
i honestly don't think nathan is a dishonest hack, but this eternal nonsense over gore and nader is so tired, and when it becomes an argument about very local politics and the greens, you see that that's actually where the strength of the greens is, as far as i can tell, anyway.
praying for peace
jeff in chicago, where the republican governor is to the left of the dem he beat last time on any number of counts