>>> "Dwayne Monroe"
Sigh.
^^^^ Good Grief ( I'm Charlie Brown)
^^^
Why is it so very hard to stay focused?
^^^^ CB: Is somebody having trouble staying focused ?
^^^^^ Chuck Grimes tried to answer that question here:
<http://mailman.lbo-talk.org/pipermail/lbo-talk/Week-of-Mon-20071231/000361.html>
But beyond that what else can be said? I have a feeling that for many of you 1960s left vets this white folk voting for a black guy thing is huge. So huge it tends to obscure the elephant crapping in the room. .d.
^^^^ CB: Not huge. Small. "tiny", like I said here:
http://mailman.lbo-talk.org/pipermail/lbo-talk/Week-of-Mon-20071231/000267.html
CB: Yea, I don't think this vote in Iowa is a sign that the revolution is just around the corner. Actually, I'm pretty down on the US and its whole political scene today. I mean the US just elected Bush twice, is carrying out fascist war in Iraq, capital just won a big class battle against the auto workers, on and on. We are in the depths of Reaganism.
I'm not ecstactic myself about this Iowa vote. However, I must take note of this one small positive about the US politics even in the depths of Reaganism. Somehow a bunch of white people voted for a Black person for president. It's a tiny good thing in a sea of trouble. I tend to try not to complain about how bad things are _all_ the time. It gets to be whiny :>)
^^^^^
Dwayne: A good effort, but I'm still frustrated by the stubborn refusal of some of my colleagues to get the point - not necessarily agree mind you, just deal with the thing being examined and not some shadow puppet of the thing.
And listen CB, I know (or hope) that you're joking but now that you've put this caricature out there for the world to see and mistake for the real I have a pressing need to reply.
^^^^^ CB: Didn't you notice the twinkle in my eye ?
^^^^^
...
Dwayne: No one - or at least, no one worth listening to - has written or said or thought or electronically transmitted any statements which could accurately be interpreted to mean that we fear an Obama presidency - which most consider unlikely anyway - on the face of it - i.e., because of Obama himself.
^^^^ CB: The word was "danger" ( see thread title)
^^^
What's feared - and I'd argue what's being seen - is the transformation of actual political thought and action into what I'm going to call the Empty Narrative of Success. No sharp Black political thinker/activist has any trouble recognizing this when it's dressed in a televangelical suit.
When, for example, Creflo Dollar (wiki the name if you're unfamiliar) preaches a "Prosperity theology", alert Black thinkers specifically, and left leaning observers in general have zero tolerance for the phony rhetoric and keen insights into the de-politicizing aspects of this pie-in-the-skyism.
^^^^^ CB: Yea, I can see Creflo Dollar might be a , you know. Like Reverand Ike
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reverend_Ike
^^^^^^^
But when a similarly airy program, secularized and given corporate blessing, is trotted out by a highly visible Black politician it's declared to be a very good thing - the necessary next step, Wojtek (that bitter creature of bombast) asserts, of Black politics. The goodness ranges from the satisfaction of seeing White people vote for a Black candidate to a weepy belief in an onrushing era of dramatic "change".
^^^^^ CB: I said it's a good thing - and it is - when a bunch of white folks vote for a modal Black political person for President in the US, referring to the Iowa Caucus majority vote for Obama. And what I said is correct, still.
^^^^^
As I stated yesterday (And Odin's eye! Could I have been any clearer!? Perhaps signal flares or strippers wearing placards are needed?) the threat of null politics posing as actual politics now exists regardless of the Obama campaign's chances. A template has been created.
^^^^ CB: I'm not sure what you are saying is clear ( nor that flares will clarify it). What are "null politics" ?
^^^^
Obama is now the face of this thing but it won't end with him and his presidential bid.
^^^^^ CB: However, it's not a scary face as we don't fear it ?
^^^^^^^
Again, it isn't necessary to agree but at least be sporting enough to address the actual argument on the table.
^^^^ CB: Believe me. I've addressed the argument in spades, ole Sport. See my other posts on this and related threads on the big O.