Wojtek remarks are always very sharp. But in this case -- I believe -- he may be pinning down the way things are in various points of the country but missing how they are moving. The political views of the people in the U.S. are shifting and that'll translate in behavior. There's a tremendous potential for social progress in the U.S. right now. IMHO, this is the result of important geological changes in U.S. demographics, society, and culture brought about during the 1990s. In the left, the usual focus -- and rightly so in many contexts -- is on what was screwed or didn't get done in the 1990s due to the faults of the Clinton administration and the DP leadership (which is to say, ultimately, the faults of the left for not having developed the strength to be more influential). But many good things also happened in the 1990s -- lbo-talk is just one, is it not?
In my eyes, the first indication of how much this country (and the world) was transformed by the 1990s was the emergence of the anti-war movement. It wasn't only the old left protesting. A number of fresh youth and regular people were naturally in tune with the goals of the movement. Regarding the youth, I've witnessed first hand the shift in the views of college students in three different settings, working-class urban and middle-class suburban, over the last 3 years. It's been remarkable. So I infer that these 3 years have been a school of intensive political education for many people in the U.S., and I suppose the learning continues. The unraveling of the Bush administration in the last few months is more the effect than the cause of this. I remember that just after 9/11, a lot of young people wanted the U.S. to retaliate against Bin Laden and pretty much accepted what the administration offered them. How much this has changed in the last year or so, and it goes on as we speak. This is why I expect a more participation of the youth in the presidential election than it's been usual. And IMO we would be wrong to attribute it only -- or mainly -- to the continuation of the war and the possibility of the draft. The mobilization against the war began way before any quagmire scenario was in sight and I believe that's a telling sign.
So I'll repeat this: There's a tremendous potential for social progress in the U.S. right now. We better tap into it.
Julio
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