Carrol Cox wrote:
> I don't think the millions who are going to vote for Bush are either
> dupes or scoundrels. I think they are mistaken. Do you have any quarrel
> with that?
Of course, they're mistaken, and I have no quarrrel with your statement, but I think you and others on the left are inclined to put an equal sign between the Democratic base and the Bush voters as both being equally "wrong", which is where we part company. The Republican mass base is disproportionately rural and small town, anti-union, anti-gay, anti-minority, anti-feminist, anti-intellectual, etc. -- everything we associate with the cities, which is where the Democrats draw their strength. By contrast, many of those presently stumping for Kerry are local union officers and stewards as well as leaders and activists in the local chapters of the national organizations of women, gays, blacks, pensioners, Latinos, environmentalists, students, civil libertarians, etc.
In the sense that Republican voters drawn from these constituencies have an interest in defending and strengthening their representative organizations, then, yes, I think they are "dupes" if not necessarily "scoundrels" for voting for Bush. But the same cannot be said of the Democratic base which has a proper appreciation of its class and other interests in the present historical context. If this were Russia 1917 or China 1949 or even the US 1933, and different political alternatives were on offer in a situation of capitalist breakdown, then maybe I would share your more critical view of their political choices.
This profound structural difference at the base of the two parties is for me much more important than any perceived identity between their programs and leadership at the top. The distinction doesn't seem to matter much to some on the left, but you can be certain it also matters to the US ruling class. They're comfortable, as we know, with Kerry and Dean and Rubin and the other leaders of the DP with whom they regularly associate with in politics and business. But they fret about the Democratic base, precisely because of its potential to apply pressure to a Democratic administration to thwart or limit unpopular legislative initiatives, which is not the case under the Republicans. In light of the post-election spending cuts certain to be initiated by a Kerry or Bush administration to deal with the widening current account and budget deficits, this is no small consideration.
Marv Gandall