"W. Kiernan" wrote:
>
>
> Though geez, "swing voters," what can you say? Imagine, for example,
> being unable to make up your mind in the last two Presidential
> elections! I've heard people say things like "Well, I voted for Bush
> but now I'm not satisfied about..." and while it's encouraging whenever
> you see support for right-wing political policies waning, it's hard to
> hold back from blurting out, "You _did_?! You _idiot!_"
Let's arbitrarily divide the population up in three categores:
1. Those who are almost with us in some way, & if we reach them right we will possibly activate them and certainly solidify their "leaning."
2. Those we will _never_ reach, not matter what we do. I would guess that this constitutes around 1/3 of the population, at minimum.
3. Those we won't reach NOW, regardless of what we do, but we should (as long as it doesn't hamper us too much) not do anything that will move this category into #2. Some of them will be with us later. I recruited one of this category (she had voted for Goldwater in '64) by objecting to a liberal colleague's speech at a speak-out, in which he had pulled the shit about the "Viet Cong" not being real communists but just peasant reformers. I pointed out that communists didn't have horns -- look at me, two eyes, two hands, etc. But you don't have to beat them up (as the Weathermen beat up some highschool students in Chicago) if they don't immediately choose our side! (And those high-schools students a week later beat up me and some friends!)
Memo 1: A substantial number of those in #2 will _always_ claim that they _might_ have been with us if only we wouldn't have "turned them off." If the civil-rights leaders had believed this shit they would still be celebrating the great ritual of lynching in the south.
Memo 2: If we act at all, we will (temporarily) piss some of #3 off. That's o.k. Just so we don't permanently drive them away.
I don't know about Abbie Hoffman. I never liked him and the other Yippie 'leaders,' but I suspect any that he "turned off" actually belonged to #2 above, and nothing could have reached them. And he did work hard at organizing. In addition, I have come to feel that _part_, and probably the enabling part, of the anti-war movement was simply what I've come to call the "general uproar" of the time, which was also part of what gave GIs the courage to refuse to fight, and _that_ is what ended the war. Of course one can't _plan_ and will into being a "general uproar" -- that's one of those contingencies that organized movements have to depend on.
And really, what's wrong with "I told you so!" I mean, we have a right to have _some_ fun!
Carrol