[lbo-talk] Re: Help Defeat Question 3

[Brian Charles Dauth]

Dear List:

Nathan wrote:

> What I love are leftists who talk about "progressivism" and then betray
all the progressive groups on key issues.

To me a key issue is to end the homophobic/transphobic stranglehold of the
Democratic Party.  It took DECADES to pass gay rights legislation in a city
with the largest gay population in the world and where the Council was
overwhelming Democratic.  To me queer rights is a key issue for any
progressive (which many, mamy progressive seems ready to betray at a
moment's notice).

> Every frigging union, good government groups like the Brennan Center and
People for the American Way, the NAACP and the Asian American Legal Defense
& Education Fund, NYPIRG, the Working Families Party and so on all see
nonpartisan elections as a Bloomberg strategy to destroy the current
progressive city council in the City.

Well, I think and experience for myself.  Just because Group X, Y, Z says
vote this way doesn't mean I do so.  These groups want the party system to
survive since they exist in a symbiotic relationship with it.  The groups
produce the policy papers and Democrats read them and disseminate their
ideas.  With a non-partisan system, the policy groups would have to reach
out to a broader audience.

As for the current council being progressive: not in my city.  You must be
thinking of  another New York City LOL.  The Council is delaying lead paint
legistlation due to the pressures of landlords and building owners.  They
allowed Robert Mugabe, arch homophobe who encourages the persecution and
killing of queers in his country, to speak in the Council Chamber.  They
have yet to pass legistlation forbidding city contracts to go to groups that
refuse to ban discrimination against queers.

> But Bloomberg has probably bought his success with the support of folks
like Brian who, deluded, are betraying their progressive allies.

I am not deluded.  I just think for myself.  Dr. King once asked if the
words of salvation came from a black man would anybody listen?  The way
Bloomberg brought this up was bad, but I think that non-partisan elections
are good and are a step toward greater democracy which party politics can
tend to suppress.  The fact that the good idea came up in a bad way does not
taint the idea.

Brian Dauth
Queer Buddhist Resister