[lbo-talk] Re: Anybody But Bush for Empire

Yoshie Furuhashi furuhashi.1 at osu.edu
Sat Nov 15 20:27:58 PST 2003


Thomas wrote:


>--- Yoshie Furuhashi <furuhashi.1 at osu.edu> wrote:
>>Once the Democrats win the presidential election in 2004, wait for
>>a chorus of liberals -- including former leftists -- who want us
>>all to shut up and "Give Dean a Chance."
>
>Yes, there will be those. So what? Does that fact diminish the
>arguments of those who have no illusions about the Democratic Party,
>but who are willing to vote for a "lesser of two evils" on tactical
>grounds?

Calling X a "tactic" doesn't make it one, however. For support for the Democratic Party to be "tactical," it has to be (A) based on an objective assessment of social forces (one's own side, allies, enemies, and neutrals) and the lay of the land, (B) clearly and explicitly linked to a goal and a strategy to achieve it, and (C) backed up by organizational resources (money, manpower, etc.) to make it more than just an individual voting choice.

Anyhow, the chorus to shut up the Greens and other independents to "Give the Democrats a Chance" has already begun to swell -- this despite the obvious fact that the Green Party will _not_ be able to run any candidate who can receive as many votes as Nader did in 2000, if the GP runs any candidate at all in 2004. Those who "will continue to organize outside the ballot-box and will . . . struggle against the Democratic President" can't join the chorus. Far from it, they should already be preparing to struggle against the Democratic White House.

Doug wrote:


>As I remember, Clinton's honeymoon with the left, such as it is,
>lasted somewhere between 0 and 90 days.

Clinton succeeded in the elimination of AFDC in _1996_, a feat that a Republican president had been incapable of, in large part due to the acquiescence of significant sectors of the US population who would have stiffly resisted the exactly same proposal from the Republicans.

Doug wrote:


>Much of the point of electing a Dem is to promote disillusionment,
>which encourages radical action.

Every four years, a Scary Republican comes along, and liberals and former leftists forget about "disillusionment" and get busy with the all-important business of "party discipline," shutting up the unruly advocates of independent working-class politics and once again narrowing the range of acceptable US political discourse. I'm here to resist the "party discipline." -- Yoshie

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