[lbo-talk] Fwd: the right fulminates

[Jeffrey Fisher]

well, i guess i think that there are people out there who canvassed. i had
friends who called from all over the country to order pizzas for an
election-day GOTV effort in NC involving  people who don't hate blacks. now,
calling and ordering pizzas isn't activism, but my point is that there were
people on the ground there who were out and about, making phone calls and
hitting the pavement. i don't know. it may be that my anecdotal evidence
turns out to be less representative than yours. certainly it's possible, but
i'm inclined to think not.
as for carrol's remark about progressive, i don't think it's a meaningless
term, but i don't think they're the new footsoldiers of revolution, either.
they're people who have an idea of social justice, of economic and racial
equality, they believe gay marriage should be legal, and so on. but they're
not socialists. so what?

On Thu, Nov 6, 2008 at 5:39 PM, shag <shag at cleandraws.com> wrote:


> oh. misunderstanding about who these folks are. about two dozen people who
> consider themselves part of this movement, not one single one has any
> interest in getting involved in anything. now, if you're surrounded by
> people who are all for obama, with whom you've shared lunch and watercooler
> convos and even attended a rally with...
>
> and they do jack? when they ostensibly have a stake, because they are black
> and people of color themselves?
>
> for fuck's sake. I actually signed up to volunteer last week and out of the
> two dozen , only one of them did anything. he canvassed once. wow.
>
> i hope they are aberrations. it'd be nice to see something going on. but,
> this is what i'm surrounded with and this is why I'm not at all feelin' it
> about this so-called "movement" -- at least as it's expressed among folks
> who are from the professional-managerial strate.
>
> they are nice, well-meaning people. I try hard to understand the homophobia
> and the hatred of poor blacks, etc. But I'm sorry, if they are the kind of
> people who are in this movement and they cheer at the things i listed below,
> I can't see it as especially progressive.
>
> i know people via the internet who don't share these views. but from what i
> can see, they aren't part of any movement either. they sit on their ass and
> blog and go to school and think that typing blog posts is activism.
>
>
>
> At 05:34 PM 11/6/2008, Jeffrey Fisher wrote:
>
>> i don't know that i disagree, but i don't know that you're distinguishing
>> sufficiently between the movement part, which i think is largely
>> progressive, and the part that's the "undecideds" he won over. if the
>> movement part can continue to be deployed to bring the middle aboard for
>> progressive policy, that will be good. if the movement part can maintain
>> sufficient independence to resist signing off on everything, that might be
>> a
>> miracle. but it would nevertheless be good.
>>
>
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