[lbo-talk] Once Again, Bush Makes Fools Of His Critics

[Wojtek Sokolowski]

Eric:
The problem for movements of the Left is not failed slogans or divisions
among its ranks or even the dominance of corporate media, but the
remarkable ambivalence of a populace that refuses to acknowledge the
mortality of humanity.  There is a large segment that believes in a
heavanly reward and sanctifies its own impulses in a wash of bible
reading.  Another is a class of mammonists who wish only to be, in the
words of Gordon Gekko in _Wall Street_ "liquid."  And a third group
replaces contempation with titilation.  Yet to preach against that is to
be a luddite and a religious bigot.  (I won't even mention the rekinding
of creationism.)  Worse, when something sufficiently frightens America
the people turn to facism for protection and not to "liberalism." 

Wojtek: Amen. I think that what prevented the US from becoming a fascist
state is the structure of its government rather than sentiments of its
population.  

Eric:
Hopefully, the Dems will show the balls to fillibuster every mother
fucking nominee to the Supremes.....O'Connor and Rehnquist have waited
too long in my view..... 

Wojtek: I would not count on this.

Eric:
I think it quite likely that the next election could REALLY be about the
future of abortion rights (not just some scare line in a voting
handbook), economic equality (the dwindling viablity of medicare and
social security), and war (I think our regional adventures are far from
over). 

Wojtek: If the rise of Nazism in Germany is any indicator, the mysogyny
of the Nazi regime was a reaction against substantntial advances of
women's rights in Weimar republic (See Claudia Koontz: _Mothers in the
Fatherland_).  Feminism is the main subject of rant on most right wing
talk shows - so beating women back to the kitchens and bedrooms under
the new Repug reign would not surprise me a bit.  They are already
cutting all social programs at the state level.

Wojtek