Bush Threatens Veto of Defense Bill

[Dennis Perrin]

> The problem with this is that a party based on unions is a membership
> organization. A lot of rank and file unionists supported the war in
> Afghanistan. If you want to be democratic in your organization you
> have to reflect that. As Tony Mazzocchi used to point out, a lot of
> oil workers' contracts include the first day of hunting season as a
> holiday - so the LP was in no position to support gun control, as
> left-wing intellectuals and activists would tell them they should. So
> there are constraints on any reassessment of strategy or
> confrontation with the reality of empire.


> Doug

Quite true. But seriously, Doug, a realistic assessment like this will break
apart once it enters the vision field of the person you're addressing.
Theory-driven ideologues who are divorced from the day-to-day can rarely see
things as they are, and so they must dismantle reality using blunt academic
instruments -- but not physical ones, as that would require sweat and labor
and, ugh, direct contact with people they are supposedly helping to
liberate.

DP