[lbo-talk] Purging Black Votes: 2000 and 2004

[R]

a sad comment, doug.  i'd attribute this lack of a plausible strategy to
being out of touch with the grass roots and the people's every day problems.
i don't think there's anything "intellectual," or a rationale, to be made of
it.  it's simply that the "we" are not involved in the problems of, or
interested in the grass roots where the issues are.  "we" spend too much
time on avoidance.

a compelling vision of the future is there.  people are passing it up
because they don't want to get involved with humanity's basic needs.  they'd
rather talk, and write, about things.  they'd rather go to tidy marches and
demonstrations, or talk about how stupid shrub is rather than do the
tedious, day to day organizing -- and most importantly, listening and
responding -- from the bottom up.  too many have forgotten their roots.

R

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Doug Henwood" <dhenwood at panix.com>
To: <lbo-talk at lbo-talk.org>
Sent: Monday, May 03, 2004 7:10 AM
Subject: Re: [lbo-talk] Purging Black Votes: 2000 and 2004

R wrote:


>what victories?  the victories are in the past.  what's needed is a clear,
>unabashed appraisal of what "liberals" and the left are up against.  then
>organizing to deal with it.

We - and I'm including myself in this - are rather lacking in a
compelling vision of the future. Part of the reason may be that we've
lost that old Hegelian/Marxist trick of finding the seeds of the new
in the belly of the old. So much left discourse is about horrors -
exploitation, genocide, heat death of the universe, the evils of
"globalization," the crimes of Howard Stern - that people don't want
to listen to us, and we have no plausible strategy for making things
any better.

Doug
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