> Because the U.S. is not Ukraine, as anyone with a grain of realism in
> their minds can plainly see. I love to read your posts, Chuck, with
> their thrilling revolutionary ardor, but let's be serious for once, OK?
> (And of course what's going on in Ukraine is not a revolution either, if
> you're paying attention.)
Last time I checked, there were humans living in the Ukraine with similar DNA to us. Rationalize sitting on your ass if you want to, but nobody is going to take ABB progressives seriously if they aren't organizing people to take to the streets. If Bush really isn't that bad, then why waste time opposing him? Perhaps we ought to get real and oppose the one party system that runs America and the rest of the world.
Will Michael Moore do a movie that significantly goes after the Democrats? I mean, if he has problems with big corporate fat cats, he shouldn't give the Democrats a free pass.
> I don't go to the MoveOn parties because that's not the crowd I hang out
> with, but one has to make a choice between living in the real world or
> the dream world. In the real world, there isn't going to be a revolution
> in the U.S. for the foreseeable future -- until long after I'm dead, and
> maybe you too, if then. This is just not a revolutionary country.
Well, sheeeet! If that's true, then why am I bothering being an activist? If the revolution is impossible, then perhaps I should just go find a high-paying job and start building my dream house.
I live in the real world. In the real world, the Democrats lost an election that should have been a cakewalk for them. This was totally predictable, but the ABB left wasted progressive resources on supporting the warmongering liberal wing of the Corporate Party.
> If that is so, the question is what to do about electoral politics.
The answer is clear. Abandon electoral politics. Organize on the grassroots level and use direct action to destroy the current system and build a better alternative.
> Ordinarily, that would be the thing for progressives to concentrate on,
> because it's what puts into office the legislators and executive-branch
> people who make the laws and enforce them, and laws are the way most
> people behave for the most part, because they are not brave enough or in
> favorable circumstances for breaking them. (Except for a few laws that
> everyone knows are not enforced.)
Kill the policeman in your head.
> The problem at this point is that there isn't enough of a progressive
> climate of opinion to get progressive officials into the majority of
> electoral offices.
No kidding. Then why are people advocating the pursuit of methods that are proven failures?
> Some common folks, many of them Bush voters on 11/2,
> are beginning to suspect that something fishy is going on. But most of
> the people who smell something fishy cannot clearly articulate to
> themselves what it is they are smelling, because the official pretense
> in this country is still that respectable politics is a choice of Bush
> or Kerry. It's that weird world-view that we need to change, by very
> intense cultural work to get real left ideas into the public discourse.
OK. I'm down with that. I'm busy keeping a website running that reaches 150,000 people each month. How about we get more ambitious, like Air America, and build a progressive Fox News?
> (BTW, I'm not screaming about how evil Shruberino's second term is
> going to be, because it seems pretty clear to me that he is already
> starting into his crash dive, just as I have expected him to for some
> time. Quite a few of his crew-mates are starting to mutter about bailing
> out of his plane, but the Pilot-In-Chief is convinced, apparently, that
> conditions are fine and he can proceed on autopilot.)
It's going to be very entertaining.
> But revolution? If that's your dream, I don't want to spoil your
> pleasure in wallowing around in it, but I'd rather keep in touch with
> reality, thanks.
Revolution is my reality. It is possible. It has to happen.
It certainly ain't going to happen at the ballot box in 2008.
Chuck