>>> John Thornton
Certainly many people have written about Obama bringing about change that no centrist Dem is likely to bring about.
^^^^^ CB:
McCain and Palin have the "illusion" that his response to Joe the Plumber about "spreading the wealth" by giving new "entrepreneurs" tax breaks is socialism.
Actually, socialists are glad to be identified with spreading the wealth.
Wouldn't it be funny if Obama wins, and that means the majority are ok with some "socialism" ?
By the way, on Dems, the whole current left line on Dems is not based on accurate history. Lyndon Johnson, a Democrat, got the whole nine yards of Civil Rights legislation passed, and the Great Society/War on Poverty programs passed. The nomination of McGovern and then the Dem Congress got the Viet Nam war ended. Not to mention FDR and the New Deal, legal unions, social security, unemployment insurance, welfare for the poor, et al. With a new mass movement pushing them, Democrats can make significant changes as they have at other times in the past. The whole line that "the Democratic Party is where social movements go to die" is bad history. The problem has not been the DP acting as a block to progressive legislation . It has been no adequate progressive movement among masses, . When there were such movements ,as there were in the '30's and 60's, the DP has not smothered them, but executed the movements' ideas.
In the case of Johnson, the DP sacrificed itself to the Civil Rights movement , and the racist backlash ( "Southern Strategy") against the DP for carrying through the Civil Rights agenda. The Republicans have been getting over like fat rats (without lipstick) for forty years, since Nixon, by riding the backlash against the DP for the Civil Rights and Great Society/War on Poverty legislation. That backlash (which is against most people's self-interest) is the core of Reaganism.
^^^ That said, I went to both Palin and Obama rallies this weekend and failed to find much evidence for that on the ground so to speak. I milled about and struck up conversations with many people. I was struck by how delusional the McCain/Palin crowd was. They not only spoke of Obama as some sort of new Stalin but they spoke of McCain as some sort of savior. He was going to sweep in and chase out all the rascals and return the republic to the peoples control. In contrast it was hard to find anyone at the Obama rally who, while excited about the idea of a Black President, made it clear they only expected a return to 1995. I was both disappointed and relieved. Where were the starry-eyed Obamaniacs expecting a New Deal or new Great Society?
^^^ CB: Obama says repeatedly and emphatically that change comes from the bottom up not from the top down. He always says it will be difficult. A new New Deal or Great Society, "change", will come if the People make it. Obama makes that crystal clear, far from sowing illusions about what he can do alone as President. And yes we can make a new New Deal if we break the spell of Reaganite, political insanity on enough people and, "we" continue to rally the masses for "spreading the wealth." Right now, a lot of people are likely to be open to spreading the wealth since the feds just gave those Wall Streeters a trillion dollar or so grant.
^^^^ Even the feel of the rallies was different. The Palin rally was a fantastical experience with waves of emotion and screaming ourbursts. The Obama rally in contrast was just a standard political rally, less manic than the Edwards rally I attended this spring. The Obama rally attendees were excited just not in the same manic manner. At least that was my impression. I now believe the Obamania phenomenon, while real, is much more limited in scope than I once thought. It was difficult to find at an Obama rally in Missouri anyway.
John Thornton
^^^ CB: The youth I work with in the O campaign are very sober and hardworking. They are _militants_ , not maniacs.
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