> I don't think electoral work is the be all and end all of
> politics
We know you don't Nathan, but it's pretty clear that Markos Moulitsas does. Nothing against him, frankly, because I think he's done great work, but he has his limits, and the post of his that you cited is a case in point. Being "media savvy" is not unimportant, but it's not the only thing out there. Kos approvingly cites the way the Republicans pitch everything to the media, but that's not a parallel that works strategically for us, because the enemy is in power and we're not, the capitalists own the media and we do not. I don't think that someone like Kos really has a clue about organizing the working class (e.g., unions and the black liberation movement) at the grassroots so that ordinary people can fight for their own interests. You have been critical yourself of the politics of many of the kinds of people who gravitate towards Kos, MoveOn, the Dean candidacy and the like: they're into "clean" government and see themselves as fighting "entrenched elites," when they are themselves overwhelmingly upper-middle-class or professional in origin and do not ideologically identify with workers' issues. Therefore they have a tendency to see unions as just as much of a problem as corrupt local party machines, for instance. Or they think that nominating Bob Casey (who is better than the common run of Democrats) is a "move to the right" over Barbara Hafer (who was a Republican until recently, but who they describe as a "progressive" for reasons I still can't fathom).
You've been one to make the point in the past that the old Democratic machines at least delivered the goods for urban working-class constituencies, while the primary system -- long favored by the "new politics" crowd of which the modern Deaniac is an ideological descendant -- merely gives a pseudo-democratic gloss to a highly undemocratic system run by professional campaigners and media consultants. There are some people out there who think that not only national demonstrations, but local demonstrations, sit-ins, strikes and the like are all obsolete, and that we live in a sort of Jean Baudrillard fantasy-land where we all just need to learn to play the mass media game because that's where all the real decisions get shaped anymore anyway. Like I said, I don't think you hold this position, but you're giving Kos too much credit if you think he doesn't.
- - - - - - - - - - John Lacny http://www.johnlacny.com
Tell no lies, claim no easy victories