[lbo-talk] Re New Economist Poll: Bad News For Bush

Wojtek Sokolowski sokol at jhu.edu
Fri Sep 10 10:17:34 PDT 2004


Michael Dawson:
>
> Wojtek, you're dismissal of the masses as conservative rednecks is
wrong.
> The vast majority of commoners in the society are aching for a
genuinely
> progressive candidate who talks about economic reform and healthcare
access.

I really wish it were true, but something tells me it is not. As I said time and again - I do not that "the masses" are all conservative rednecks - I think there is a real split between the rednecks and the more liberally predisposed folk - I spoke with enough train conductors and bus drivers to know that.

An encounter with a conductor on the Philadelphia-Harrisburg Amtrak line a few months ago could be very illustrative. The guy was vehemently anti-Bush, loved Clinton (him having a bj in the Oval Office was actually a plus for that guy), strong pro union. His son, otoh, a truck driver in CA was anti-union, pro-Bush redneck to the conductor's chagrin.

I agree with the point you and others are making that the DP is a far cry form the progressive or social democratic ideal - but that is all we got. I just do not think that in the current political climate anything left of Clinton would fly - the business and right wingers would simply kill it as they did try with the rather moderate Clinton presidency. In 20-30 years that may change, but not now. If by some fluke someone like Kucinich was elected and was serious about implementing his agenda - the business, the assorted rich, and right wingers would stop before nothing - including assassination or coup d'etat to halt that.

Therefore, the best strategy is to work with what we have instead of bemoaning that we do not have more a progressive DP.

Wojtek



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