Neither was John F. Kerry, and yet:
Disappointment, please. No less serious a radical than
Tariq Ali has said that "the defeat of Bush would be
viewed globally as a victory." He's also denied that by
saying so he's urging anyone to vote for Kerry, though
it's hard to see how anyone else could defeat Bush.
Ali's squeamishness is understandable; for this newsletter,
which has from the beginning viewed the Democratic
Party as an obstacle to human progress, this is a difficult
endorsement to make. Making it easier is the knowledge
that were Kerry to win, he'd become the enemy on
November 3.
He is also likely to be disappointing in many ways
(disappointing to already low expectations), which is a
comfort. He's already made a healthy downpayment on
that disappointment, and the campaign has hardly begun.
He proposed a corporate tax reform that was the triumph
of wonkishness over any discernible political or economic
strategy-"revenue-neutral," of course, but defying any
interesting paraphrase. And, more repulsively, he
endorsed Bush's endorsement of Ariel Sharon's "peace"
plan-assassinations, wall-building, and making most
settlements in the Occupied Territories permanent. Awful
stuff, and it's only April. Come November, it's going to
require a giant clothespin to enter a polling booth.
LBO has quoted several times Garry Wills' explanation
of why the 1960s exploded: after years of liberals' saying
things would improve when Ike was replaced, when things
didn't get much better under JFK, a lot of people decided
the System was the problem, not party or personnel.
Some similar disillusionment with Clinton probably helped
spark Seattle. It could happen again. Let's hope it does.
("Ralph 'n' stuff," Left Business Observer #107, April 2004, <http://www.leftbusinessobserver.com/Election2004.html>)
I'm sure an increasing number of Americans are disillusioned with the Democrats whom they voted for, but there's no sign of radicalization on the home front, is there? Perhaps disillusionment merely encourages apathy, cynicism, and passivity if the disillusioned do not see any practical alternative.
> Aren't you observing a posting moratorium for Ramadan?
Maybe you think that Islam is not a major religion, which can interest non-believers, but a contagious disease or something like that.
Speaking of Muslims, Tariq Ali said in an interview: "For socialists the task is clear: the Muslim communities must be defended against being made scapegoats, against repression, against the very widespread representation that terrorism is proper to Islam. All that must be energetically fought. But at the same time we must not close our eyes to the social conservatism which reigns in these communities, nor hide it. We have to try to win this people to our own ideas" (" The Anti-Imperialist Left Confronted with Islam," IV Online 376, March 2006, <http://www.internationalviewpoint.org/spip.php?article1012=>). But what are "our own ideas" to which we are to win "this people" over? If it's basically "Vote for Moderates," then the idea would have a better chance of winning them over if it doesn't come saddled with tortured socialist justifications for it. -- Yoshie