[lbo-talk] Fwd: ABC News/Washington Post Poll: After theConventions

Tayssir John Gabbour tayssir.john at googlemail.com
Tue Sep 9 14:00:51 PDT 2008


On Tue, Sep 9, 2008 at 8:17 PM, rayrena <rayrena at realtime.net> wrote:
> And the reason, it seems to me, that the Democrats keep losing is
> that they insist on fighting over this same sliver of voters, white,
> suburban/rural, Christian. Instead of inspiring some of their
> "natural" constituencies to actually show up to the polls -- with,
> you know, policies that might actually benefit them -- they both
> allow Republicans to turn out their natural voters and then try to
> fight for them, with prevaricating words about the tragedy of
> abortion, the importance of values, all that shit. It seems to me it
> isn't possible for Democrats to win with 50% turnout, but they do
> nothing to inspire 55% turnout. They deserve to lose.

Makes me think of a hotel owner who desperately needs to fill up his or her vacancies, but won't go to the length of letting in homeless people.

I'm partial to this view:

"Obama is about winning.

And even regarding winning - his understanding is a bit different from ours.

We tend to think winning means get the most votes. But Obama won't

aggressively appeal down to win more votes, because doing that

even if it won the presidency would be antithetical to the desires

of the people who invest in him, work with him, advise and

instruct him, and most likely to his desires too. He will,

instead, try to take some religious voters from McCain, who needs

all of them to win, and he will try to get more independents to go

his way than Kerry or Gore managed to attract. In short, he and

McCain will essentially battle over a few percent of all voters,

instead of Obama seeking support from the 50% of the population

that doesn't vote at all. They would both agree that to try to

inspire the poor and disenfranchised, to give those folks real

reason for excitement and hope, is just too risky a path to take -

not for winning the election, but for pursuing elite interests.

So, the odd charade and peculiar game proceeds. A lot is of course

at stake. But there is no reason whatsoever for us to dispense

with our minds while the election goes on. And, even more, we

should work hard to prevent an odd dismissal of our own best views

infecting our thinking not just now, but after the election as

well, when we need to apply pressure rather than celebrate or

moan."

http://www.zcommunications.org/blog/view/1898

Tayssir



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