[lbo-talk] GOP donors funding Nader

John Halle john.halle at yale.edu
Sun Mar 28 15:59:08 PST 2004


Jon writes:


>I don't get that at all. . . when it comes to presidential campaigns, each
>party has to stretch both its arms out and grab as many voters on both
>sides as it can.
>
>Bush and Kerry have the same problem -- grabbing what they can to the
>left and right, while keeping their bases happy.

The reason "we don't get it" is because it is false. This is not the essential "problem" both parties face. Rather the essential problem is to maintain access to corporate cash while doing what is necessary to appease those in leadership positions claiming to represent the base. For the Democrats this means throwing a few subcabinet level positions to Ivy league technocrats in mainstream environmental organizations and labor unions while conferring real power on those with impeccable Wall Street credentials. Same with Republicans except that the "base" tends to be more easily appeased by a few nods towards the religious right-e.g. opposition to gay marriage, prayer in schools etc.

I suppose its understandable that some here don't "get it" given the increasingly neo-liberal orientation of this list.

I hope everyone "gets it" now.

John -- -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: <../attachments/20040328/f8a7b190/attachment.htm>



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