[lbo-talk] Kerry: America First!

Wojtek Sokolowski sokol at jhu.edu
Fri Feb 6 12:21:24 PST 2004



> Michael Dawson -PSU wrote:
>
> >This is the core issue, isn't it? What bennies did Slick Willie
provide? I
> >have lots of trouble recalling any.
>
> Decent NLRB and judicial appointees, not drilling in the Arctic. His
> creation of a bullshit Fair Labor Association encouraged the
> anti-sweatshop kids to form something for real - a perfect
> illustration of the mechanism I was talking about: he didn't do
> enough, so the radicals were encouraged to do something serious.
>
> Doug

Also: putting the health reform on the national agenda (it refuses to die ever since), urban development, housing and public transportation, the Oslo Accord and helping to maintain relative peace in the Middle East, supporting international cooperation and the UN, endorsing environmental and human rights issues that gave birth to Seattle, vetoing a draconian bankruptcy bill.

In short, he endorsed (even if by paying lip service) many liberal causes giving them legitimacy, which usually translates into greater resource mobilization potential. By contrast, the logic of "making things worse to prod the masses to rebel" is pure pseudo-revolutionary bullshit that cannot be demonstrated by a single historical precedent.

Wojtek



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