[lbo-talk] The Democrats and the Bush tax cuts

c b cb31450 at gmail.com
Wed Nov 10 12:56:32 PST 2010



> On Nov 10, 2010, at 9:53 AM, Marv Gandall wrote:
>
>> If the Obama administration is true to form, it won't take a stand. If the liberal wing of the party is true to form, it will criticize the administration for missing another opportunity to pass good policy and to portray the Republicans as the party of the rich. If Carrol is true to form, he will say it's "silly" to concern ourselves with an irrelevant issue which has nothing to do with the more important task of building a revolutionary vanguard. If Woj and Charles are true to form, they will indicate they favour taking a stand, but will support the administration for not taking a stand, and join with it in vilifying the liberal Democratic critics of the administration as ultra-left.
>>
>> Have I got any of this wrong?

^^^^^^^ CB: Most of it's wrong in the sense of half-truths (smile).

As to what you say about me specifically, there's nothing from the past I've said by which it is accurate to say it is true to form of me that I would say "take a stand". I'd say compromise. I believe the Reps have them in a bind because the tax cuts for the working class are tied to the tax cuts for the rich. ( I have to check on this) The Blue Dogs are Dogs and unreliable to win. I would say compromise to save the tax cuts for the working class. Preserving these tax cuts would be good in the sense that it might piss off the sincere Tea Partiers who might thereby come into conflict with the regular Republicans. Also, I never have vilified the liberal Democratic critics of the administration as ultra-left. I support Conyers, Kucinch, Kaptur, et al. I criticize, not vilify, the ultra-lefts (who emphatically characterize themselves as not-Democrats ) for not developing the rhetoric and arguments against the ultra-right. They reach this bizarre conclusion of only criticizing Democrats, and think nobody notices that they don't criticize the right and Reps as much as they criticize the Democrats. This is objectively rhetorical unity with the Republicans and right-wing, i.e backing into right-wing political discourse in this concrete situation. They have horrible concrete analysis of the concrete situation; they are very non-Leninists.



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