[lbo-talk] another TP poll: still whiter, righter, more

[brad bauerly]

Marv writes:
>Brad and others, however, see trade unionists, women, blacks, and others who continue to support the Obama administration as dupes lacking any consciousness   >of their political interests. He finds the angry tea party movement more appealing, despite its "contradictions", because he perceives it as incipiently hostile to the >system and therefore a more fertile recruiting ground for the left than hapless liberals and social democrats who remain committed to it despite their grievances. Brad >isn't the first and won't be the last on the left to suffer from this confusion.
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Marv that is not at all what I think.  In the quoted text that I
wrote, which followed your unfounded claims, I clearly say that I am
beginning to think that the 40% (of respondents to the poll who had no
opinion about the TP) were a more fruitful place for leftists than the
27% (who claimed to be against them, which I figured was mostly made
up of partisan Democrats).  That is quite different from saying that
the TP is more appealing and fertile recruiting ground for the left.
Not quite sure why you would misrepresent what I said.  I also in a
subsequent post differentiated my position on liberals and social
democrats, with the latter holding out possibilities while the former
mostly clinging to the Dems and liberal ideology too tightly, IMO.
Again, no sure why the intent to misrepresent my position.

Let me be quite clear, I never viewed, nor expressed views, favorable
of the TP or said that the left should reach out to the TP.  I think
the TP is interesting as a political development because as a new
development it hasn't been forced into the normal two parties
ideologies.  It is interesting in a sociological sense to see how
people react- usually they try to understand the TP as part of the
Republicans (all the astro-turf talk), or they use the two party
stand-in binaries: smart v. dumb, rural v. urban, white v.
multi-racial, small business v. workers, anti-tax v. big government,
rich v. poor...  Rarely has anyone here or elsewhere actually tried to
engage with the material driver of the TP, focusing instead on their
ideological representation and assigning them a R or D.  I truly
believe that the left will never get anywhere if they don't attack the
two party system and I think we need to begin by trying to breakdown
all of the prescribed markers we use for understanding people with in
the two party binary.

Brad