On Sun, 10 Feb 2008 08:34:17 -0600 Carrol Cox <cbcox at ilstu.edu> writes:
>
> Oh the pain of the lesser evil.
>
> Probably FDR as of October 1932 was more conservative than either
> of
> them. You just cannot predict administrations - it depends on what
> people are doing _outside_ the electoral process. Nixon gave us the
> Disability Act & refrained from nuking Vietnam -- just because of
> what
> we did outside of the elections.
I have written on this topic in the distant past. See: http://mailman.lbo-talk.org/2000/2000-January/001490.html
There, I wrote:
"That seems correct. People forget that in 1932 FDR ran to the right of Herbert Hoover with Roosevelt blasting Hoover throughout the campaign for not balancing the budget. It was subsequent events like rise of the uemployed councils, the growth of the CIO and other mass movements that pushed the Roosevelt Administration to the left. People also forget that President Nixon's administration was in terms of its actual policies well to the left of all of its successors including Carter and Clinton. While President Nixon's basic political instincts were reactionary, he took office at a time when the '60s social movements were still quite strong which forced him to deal with them through through a combination of repression and cooptation."
And in regards to William Jefferson Clinton, I wrote:
"Quite right! We only have to look at the policies of that the Clinton Administration has pursued for evidence of this. It was Clinton who signed into law the bill that abolished AFDC, it was Clinton who rammed NAFTA though Congress, it is Clinton who has been pushing for GATT. It is the Clinton Administration that has pushed for more and more repressive legislation to combat crime and "terrorism." The fact that most liberals and leftists have been little loyal supporters of Clinton has done little to stop his administration's slide to the right. On the contrary since he can take the left for granted he feels free to respond to the demands of the moneyed power centers."
>
> Supporting either Clinton or Obama now helps to guarantee a more
> conservative administration.
>
> Carrol
>
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