Nathan Newman wrote:
> Given what's happening in the immigration field, anyone who thinks there
is
> no difference between Dems and GOP just betrays a complete racist
> indifference to the reality of peoples lives these days in those
> communities.
-Ouch! Race-baited by Nathan.
Pissed me off-- you insulted a lot of activists in your post.
>I find it ironic that Nathan suggests that there *is* a difference,
>after Amy Goodman played Malcolm X's "Ballet or the Bullet" speech this
>morning on Democracy Now. If anybody needs a reminder about how tame the
>rhetoric of contemporary radicalism is these days, just take a listen to
>that speech.
And as many folks have noted, Malcolm and the Nation of Islam's rhetoric was all very militant and their actions were pretty damn tame. Give me militant and strategic organizing any day over lovely rhetorical militancy.
>I'll stand by my argument that there is no difference between the Dems
>and GOP. I think many people of color would agree with me.
You "think"-- yet black Americans are the most partisan group in the country, singularly loyal to the Democratic Party and quite clear in every poll that they see a quite significant difference between the two parties. You are just plain wrong in your opinion on this point.
>Remember that
>the Clinton administration laid the groundwork for Bush 2. Who passed
>the Welfar Reform Act?
The GOP Congress twice, to be vetoed twice by Clinton. Look at the original versions, which would have terminated Medicaid, Food Stamps and a variety of other entitlements. Even on the worst decision by Clinton, there is a dramatic difference between what the GOP wanted and passed and what he eventually agreed to.
As for the 90s, that was a period in which taxes were hiked on the wealthy quite significantly, the minimum wage and EITC were increased, and average wages for the poorest workers actually increased for the first time in a cou ple of decades. I'll take that difference any day.
And I will also go through my usual statements that Clinton is not the same as the Democratic Party, that the problems are that the GOP controlled Congress, etc.
-- Nathan newman