[lbo-talk] Nancy Pelosi, another legacy of the UFW

Carrol Cox cbcox at ilstu.edu
Fri May 15 09:04:44 PDT 2009


Mike Yates wrote:"Now we see Pelosi scrambling to disassociate herself from the Bush administration's torture. I think we all know that Pelosi knew or should have known about this and done something about it. But like most Dems, she was gutless."

When we say that X is "gutless," we mean that his/her intentions were good but that he/she lacked the courage to act on the basis of that intention. Here you claim that Pelosi is really against torture, really is opposed to u.s. war crimes, but is merely afraid to act on her good feelings.

In other words, every time you identifu the Dems as "gutles" or "stupid" you are defending the Democratic Party. That is precisely what all liberals who cling to the party believe. They believe that it is a party with a progressive heart but that it's leaders out of political opportunism simply fail to carry their beliefs into action.

Radicals who call the Dems "gutless" are aiding and abetting the Democratic party. The same goes for the endless proofs on this list, on Pen-L, and on the marxism list that this or that capitalist or capitalists in general are bad people. One canno build a socialist political force on this basis, but only on the basis that what is wrong with capitalism is capitalism, not bad people. That is the core belief of social democrats: that capitalism can be reformed by getting rid of bad capitalists.

The Dems are nnot gutless ar all; they prove that year after year by risking electoral defeat in their courageous defense of capitalism and of u.s. aggression around the world. They are courageous and principled defenders of a vicious system.

Carrol

Carrol



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