[lbo-talk] Why not let McCain win?

Tayssir John Gabbour tayssir.john at googlemail.com
Sat Oct 18 12:22:54 PDT 2008


On Thu, Oct 16, 2008 at 7:57 PM, Peter Lavelle <untimely_thoughts at yahoo.com> wrote:
> Why not let McCain win? Rove and is new generation political
> technologists are aiming to rig the whole thing. And who in the their
> right mine wants the job of POTUS?
>
> [...]
>
> The system is failing - let it completely belly up before real change is on offer.

I recently saw a nice analysis of why a Democrat is preferable to a Republican:

- - - -

http://anarchiststrategy.blogspot.com/2008/10/elephant-in-room.html

[..] a Democratic president means we can go on the offensive,

while a Republican means we're forced to continue playing defense.

Why? For one, we are far better equipped to take advantage of

liberal disillusionment than liberal outrage. The last four years

have been a testament to this, with the clearest beneficiaries of

outrage being the Democratic party and the authoritarian Left

(see: the anti-war movement.) While it's true that anarchists have

been building some momentum of late, the Bush years, especially

after 9/11, have not been good to us.

Liberal disillusionment has been far kinder to anarchists. The

C.S.A. is of the opinion that it is no accident that the surge of

anarchist activity in the late '90s overlapped with a Democratic

administration in the process of moving to the right. While it has

been nearly impossible to break the liberal obsession with the

current president's personality and grammar, it was relatively

easy to point out that life under a likable Democrat still sucked.

As the Clinton administration abandoned its social democratic

agenda--especially in its decisive move towards a neoliberal

economic policy--progressive liberals got involved in the

anti-globalization movement, which, due to its pluralism, exposed

some to anarchists and their propaganda. This is largely what led

to the swelling of anarchist ranks at the time and thus allowed

for the various dramatic events now immortalized on Hollywood

celluloid.

Another reason a Democratic administration favors us is that it

forces us into fewer reactionary stances. As stated in the

paragraphs quoted above, a Republican administration would likely

busy itself with all manner of offensive actions in a continuation

of the current administration's agenda--possibly at an accelerated

clip--to which anarchists have struggled to effectively

respond. Being the militant reaction to Republican offense does

not suit anarchists for a variety of reasons, from the

demographics of the anarchist milieu to the strengths of the

anarchist critique of postmodern life.



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