--- Michael Pollak <mpollak at panix.com> wrote:
> mechanism by which electing O will somehow
> "paralyze" the black activist
> community -- will somehow make them give up their
> radicalness in some way
> that voting for Bill Clinton didn't. Or Dukakis, or
> Mondale, or Jimmy
> Carter. Or Hillary Clinton.
>
> What am I missing?
[WS:] Social proximity and the size of the niche. The chances of Clinton or Dukakis competing with the figures in the narrow niche of radical black identity politics are next to nil. This cannot be said about Obama - he can be plausibly seen as a radical (of a sort) black identity activist, and thus he represents competition if not a threat to the figures already occupying that niche. That explains the opposition to his candidacy coming from those quarters.
That, btw, can explain a lot of left sectarianism. Capitalists do not compete with leftish grouplets for the honor of being the vanguard of the downtrodden, other leftish "splinter" grouplets do. Therefore, the threat of another leftish group becoming the vanaguard of the downtrodden (no mater how marginal) is far closer to the home, and thus more threatening and evoling fiercer responses, than the general malaise of capitalism.
Such, such is the fate of too many (self-styled) big fish in a small pond.
Wojtek
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