[lbo-talk] Re: 14 characteristics of fascism

[Yoshie Furuhashi]

At 7:31 PM -0400 6/5/03, Doug Henwood wrote:
>>>  Outside of the Democratic Party, there is no solid political party
>>>  that can marshal enough motivated organizers to make a difference in
>>>  2004.
>>>
>>>  Do you have any candidate for whom you don't mind busting your own
>>>  ass doing campaign work for, say, at least 10-15 hours per week?
>>>  --
>>
>>The question, "Does it make a difference who is in the White House?" is
>>a radically misleading question -- misleading in the sense that it
>>suppresses (as not askable) all the questions that need to be asked. It
>>suppresses, for example, the question: How important politically are the
>>50% of Americans who will not vote in 2004. And by suppressing that
>>question it objectively denies the humanity of that 50%. The election
>>will be decided by what around 1.5% to 2.5% of the voting-age population
>>do during a 30 second span of time in November 2004.
>>
>>So, the real question is, not "Does it make a difference who is in the
>>WH?" But "Does it make a difference if leftists quit all other
>>activities to concentrate for the next 18 months on having a momentary
>>effect on how that 2% spends 30 seconds of their time?"
>
>Who the hell said anything like that?
>
>Of course it makes a difference who's in the WH. I'll bet about 80% 
>of the world's population would agree. But you & Yoshie can't admit 
>that, so you've got to change the subject.

I've never said that it makes no difference who's in the WH.  In the 
future, leftists _may_ be able to meaningfully participate in a 
presidential election campaign.  My post was simply a survey of the 
existing electoral political field for the 2004 presidential 
election, and my question only concerned if there is any candidate 
for whom you will bust your ass working for at least 10-15 hours per 
week.  The truth of the matter is that you actually agree with me, in 
the sense that you aren't excited by any of the candidates running 
now and therefore you won't spend much time (if any at all) working 
for any of them.

At 7:31 PM -0400 6/5/03, Doug Henwood wrote:
>Right now, the U.S. state is in the hands of the most reactionary, 
>bellicose, and repressive gang in living memory.

You could have very well been blacklisted from all respectable 
institutions for saying something like that in public during the 
Truman and Eisenhower administrations, though.  Do you think you 
could have had your radio show at the height of the Red Purge?  FDR 
interned all Japanese citizens and residents -- two thirds of them 
children! -- on the mainland USA (though he didn't imprison Japanese 
in Hawaii because their labor was in demand).  Bush & Co. have yet to 
do the same to Arabs and Muslims, though they may in the future if we 
let them or if more major terrorist attacks by any Arab and/or Muslim 
individuals happen here.

The USA does have the highest incarceration rate in the world, but it 
isn't an overnight creation since 9.11.  That's a bipartisan product.

At 7:31 PM -0400 6/5/03, Doug Henwood wrote:
>the revolution that you have no strategy for promoting that I can see

I don't think that you can artificially "promote" any revolution when 
only a handful diehard revolutionaries want it.  Most Americans today 
aren't revolutionaries.  Most of them aren't even politically active 
at any spectrum of the left yet.  You have to start where you are at, 
even if you wish that conditions were more auspicious.
-- 
Yoshie

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