There was a 35-year turnout record and Kerry increased his working- class support vs. both Gore's and Bush's numbers. This should have meant victory. But millions of new and previously-inactive electors clearly voted **for** Bush. Millions made a **positive effort** to vote for a far-right militarist with a record of almost total failure by any reasonable standard of governance, and whose policies are against the interests of 85% of the population.
Not only does the left, broadly defined, lack the power to defeat the Republican Party, it seems to have no real understanding of the source of that power. No, it is not the Democrats' weaknesses that are key. It is the Republicans' strengths. It's time to treat them like an enemy deserving of respect, the kind that might even be better at this power-attaining stuff than we are. The kind that has the will and the power to destroy us. For no other reason than that we are its enemies, and they know it.
---------- Original Message ---------------------------------- From: Liza Featherstone <lfeather at panix.com> Reply-To: lbo-talk at lbo-talk.org Date: Thu, 04 Nov 2004 18:09:46 -0500
>
>Katha Pollitt's column is an excellent counter to all the stupid repetitions
>I've seen of that stupid cliche, "Don't Mourn, Organize."
>
>http://www.thenation.com/doc.mhtml?i=20041122&s=pollitt
>
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