>From: Doug Henwood <dhenwood at panix.com>
>Subject: Re: [lbo-talk] Campaigning vs. Voting
>Reply-To: lbo-talk at lbo-talk.org
>
>Tahir Wood wrote:
>
>>The true political cul de sac: thinking that you can ever get rid of
>>the right by voting for the left.
>
>Three questions: 1) Who actually thinks that?
>The election is not even here and yet it is the dominant topic on
>your list - who to vote for, how to support a particular candidate,
>etc. It is a matter of inference on my part, not an unreasonable one
>I think.
The president of the U.S. is the most important and powerful political figure in the world. The current occupant of the office is one of the worst ever. No one thinks that improving the occupant is going to "get rid of the right," or even change the world profoundly for the better, but it would be a step in the right direction. And, as I've said before, I'm guessing that a couple of billion people outside the U.S. agree.
> 2) Is it possible to
>get rid of the right some other way? 3) If so, how?
>Doug
>
>My own view is that one needs to discredit the electoral process by
>rather spreading ideas on how to create a system of dual power, so
>that eventually very few people go to the polls but many participate
>in other forms of political organisation. It would at least be nice
>to see some discussion of the latter possibilities.
I'm enthusiastically open to that. Electoral politics is just one field among many, and as I've also said before, it's not an either/or thing. So if you'd like to inject alternatives, you're very welcome.
Doug