[lbo-talk] Adolph Reed on the politics of the crisis

Jeffrey Fisher jeff.jfisher at gmail.com
Tue Sep 30 14:25:43 PDT 2008


On Tue, Sep 30, 2008 at 2:13 PM, Marvin Gandall <marvgandall at videotron.ca>wrote:


> Doug writes:
>
> [I emailed Adolph Reed with a complaint about the vacuity of so much
>> "left" response to the financial crisis/bailout. Here's his response.]
>>
>> Unsurprisingly, I guess, I've had the same reaction on hearing the left
>> demands to block the bailout. I kept thinking that I must have been
>> missing something, that they must have some follow-up position that would
>> modify that stance. Who, after all, could imagine that the alternatives
>> they push for could even be in the ballpark for consideration at this
>> point? But, alas, like so much else they do, it's all about making
>> themselves feel good at what they hear coming out of their mouths. That
>> is, there doesn't seem to be much concern with thinking and acting
>> strategically from a left-critical perspective that takes into account
>> the actual constraints of the moment, including the ideological
>> constraints that no one has been more significant in imposing than the
>> Dems so many of these "leftists" insist every two years that we have to
>> vote for or else goblins will eat us.
>>
> ====================================
> Reed has a good understanding of the utopian character at the present
> moment
> of demands for the nationalization of the financial sector under democratic
> control. But you could equally say "it's all about making themselves feel
> good at what they hear coming out of their mouths" when US leftists,
> including Reed above, call on liberal Americans within the same political
> context to break with the Democrats and to vote for marginal third parties
> like the Greens who lack any possibility of representing them in the
> legislature. Both demands presuppose a much higher level of political
> consciousness than presently exists in the US, for those who believe this
> to
> be a relevant consideration.
>

is it worth noting that in reed's piece on obama, he specifically and explicitly does *not* tell people not to vote for obama, and points out how useless third party voting would be?



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