Beyond that, I have no idea what the situation in 2008 will be. If you had asked me to predict a year ago what the situation on 10/31/04 would be, I wouldn't have come anywhere close.
On Oct 30, 2004, at 7:25 PM, <hari.kumar at sympatico.ca> wrote:
> I wish all the members of this list who reside in the USA many good
> wishes & sincere solidarity as they watch the polls.
> I wish them also a future alternative to the non-choice they face now.
> I want them to tell me how that is to be built.
> I cannot hear anyone proposing - in midst of the attack &
> counter-attack on the election right now, any sensible strategy.
> I may have missed it as the shoes, mud, horse-manure & saucepans fell
> across the debating floor.
Folks are getting astonishingly worked-up about this, aren't they? I think that I never really understood the expression "political passions" before so clearly as I have come to in the last few weeks.
It's remarkable to me how much many of the posters on this list (as well as many more out in the world beyond LBO, of course) have regressed to the state of mind of third-graders pushing and shoving each other on the playground during recess. The language they use is almost literally the same.
In any case, I can't think of any sensible strategy for creating an alternative to what you call the "non-choice" of 2004; I doubt that there is any available at this point. I think that's why the anti-ABB group is using such hysterical language at this point; they, in their heart of hearts, can't think of any either. They're in the position of folks who are desperately wishing for a rapid, thorough destruction of the present system, but without any mass base behind them, which makes it impossible to satisfy their desire. Some seem to have cynically retreated to snarling at Bush, Kerry, and everyone else -- the world is just going to hell, and we might as well have fun with it. Others are valiantly struggling on, hoping against hope.
Meanwhile, I venture to remind us that there is a trend in this country of reasonably rational socialists -- Debs, Thomas, Michael Harrington, etc. -- who have been able to keep their heads and make a difference. I think there will still be opportunities for such activity in the coming years.
Jon Johanning // jjohanning at igc.org __________________________________ A sympathetic Scot summed it all up very neatly in the remark, 'You should make a point of trying every experience once, excepting incest and folk-dancing.' -- Sir Arnold Bax