[lbo-talk] Anybody But Bush?

[Joseph Wanzala]

You seem to imply that Clinton was somehow coming from the left with a 
progressive agenda which was modified into a realistic posture once he won 
the election. In fact Bill Clinton, via the Democratic Leadership Council 
was a representative of the liberal wing of the powerful, well organized 
business elites who control this country - the kindler and gentler among the 
robber barons. It is a misconception to see him either as a 'sell-out' or a 
'realist' he was, rather, a facilitator of the neo-liberal, Third Way agenda 
of post-Cold War Liberalism which successfully implemeted much of the Bush 
41 wish list agenda items especially in the area of free trade (NAFTA/WTO) 
and proscription of civil liberties - (the Anti-Death Penalty and Effective 
Death Penalty Act) in which prefigured the PATRIOT Act. I don't think the 
attacks on Clinton were evidence of his attempt to gain concessions, that 
was just the usual gangsterism that has always charaterized Democratic and 
Republican Party rivalry, to be sure, it reached rare heights under Clinton, 
but it was not anything new. Indeed the 1992 campaign was notable for the 
amount of money that was given to both candidates by the same usual suspect 
big money interests, like financier Jackson Stephens and Goldman Sachs (from 
whence sprung Clinton's Treasury Secretary) who had obviously made the 
calculation that whichever horse won would carry their water to a greater or 
lesser extent.

Joe W.


>From: Wojtek Sokolowski <sokol at jhu.edu>
>Reply-To: lbo-talk at lbo-talk.org
>To: lbo-talk at lbo-talk.org
>Subject: RE: [lbo-talk] Anybody But Bush?
>Date: Wed, 12 Nov 2003 14:13:17 -0500
>
>Com. boddi opined
> >
> >   Without Nader and Dean, the Democratic Party would never have woken
>up to
> > the fact that you can only sell out for so long before it stops
>working.
> >
>
>There is a clearly discernible tendency among the US left to think that
>turning the US into a social democracy is the matter of electing right
>men to political offices (esp. presidency).  Hence the disappointment
>when the man who initially "sounds right" starts doing bad things while
>in office.
>
>I find that view fundamentally flawed.  Methinks the US politics is
>determined for the most part by powerful, well organized, and
>fundamentally conservative business elites who face little organized
>opposition from the rest of society.  Any elected representative has a
>choice of either accepting this realpolitik or being trampled over.
>
>With that in mind, Clinton and Co. were not "sellouts" but political
>realists.  Given the current power structure, going against the wishes
>of big business is not a viable option - the best a political can do is
>drag his feet and get some concessions here and there.  The hatred that
>the right spewed on his presidency tells me that he did not totally
>abdicated to the power of business elites, but tried to get such
>concessions.
>
>Greens simply do not matter vis a vis the power of big business, so they
>could not affect in any way the Democratic Party, just like a fly cannot
>affect the path of an airliner.  Anyone who expects the 2004 Democratic
>candidate, whoever he is, to put the country on a path toward social
>democracy is bound to have a rude awakening.  The only thing that
>accomplish that is breaking the backbone of big business that owns this
>country - but I am not holding my breath to see that happening any time
>soon.
>
>I will support Dean in 2004, because I think he is most capable of
>"pulling a Clinton" - i.e. negotiating more favorable terms of surrender
>for anything social and democratic.  I think that Lieberman also has
>similar, if not greater, capabilities to do the same but his stance on
>foreign policy is more than I can handle.  Or perhaps Lieberman is smart
>to realize that in order to accomplish anything on the domestic forum,
>one has to totally capitulate to imperialist dictates in foreign policy.
>
>
>If anyone on this list is serious about social democracy, I suggest
>moving to Europe, because it will not happen here any time soon.  That
>at least is on my mind lately.
>
>Wojtek
>
>
>
>
>___________________________________
>http://mailman.lbo-talk.org/mailman/listinfo/lbo-talk

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