"Devine, James" wrote:
> Todd Chretien writes:
> >The Democrats do nothing to challenge the indifference of the poorest
> people and youth in the United States to the outcomes of elections,
> because they benefit from it. The biggest threat to the Democratic
> Party's status as an alternating ruling party is an active, confident
> and organized working class. The submission of most of the left in the
> United States to the mantra of "Anybody But Bush" is of enormous
> importance to maintaining this subjegation.<
> Though this is accurate (as is the critique of the DP's
> anti-democratic ways), it misses an important dimension of the
> middle-class white ABB movement, i.e., the culture war stuff. Though
> it's very true that the DP doesn't want organized and class-conscious
> workers, there's a big component of the working class that doesn't
> want abortion rights, gay marriage, etc. The yuppies that Chretien
> discusses are typically more in favor of those, and are deeply worried
> about who Bush will appoint to the Supreme Court (someone _worse_ than
> Clarence Thomas?)
I would prefer to speak of different sectors of one working class in formation, since most of those "yuppies" would be -- or since the 2000 crash are already -- in great trouble if their paychecks cease for a few months. And those "culture wars" need, eventually, to be won _inside_ the working class. AND that will be rather difficult to do so long as a large number of leftists remain tied to the DP.
Carrol
P.S. Many ABBs affirm that they have no allegiance to the DP but believe that 2004 represents a special case; that one can work for Kerry now but return to the struggle against the DP after the election. For some no doubt this is true. But it seems to me at least that as the months have passed those ABBs have increasingly used arguments that simply do not differentiate between now and any other election past or future -- i.e. are arguments which will equally apply when a run-of-the-mill DP reactionary is running against a run-of-the-mill RP reactionary in future elections. ABB is turning into The DP Now and Forever. And that brings us back to Chretien's point, that the DP is essentially anti-democratic, and any movement for democracy in the U.S. must see the DP as its chief enemy. Hence my increasing irritation with (most) ABBs.
P.S. 2 This irritation does not extend to the 20 to 30 rabid Kerry supporters in the local anti-war group: they are just getting started in non-electoral political activity and take supporting the DP for granted. They will learn. But the ABBs who publish in various left journals and on maillists are a different matter -- they are (supposedly) not political amateurs or new to left activity.