On 2010-11-16, at 9:09 AM, Carrol Cox wrote:
> So everyone on this list knows more than the DP leadership does. There is
> something like lunacy in assuming one's enemy is cowardly, stupid, and
> utterly unaware of his/her/its own interests.
I can't speak for anyone else on this list, Carrol, but the answer to your comment depends on the context.
I don't think think the leadership of the DP is in any way cowardly or ignorant of its "bipartisan" interests as these pertain to the defence of US capitalism and imperialism. It's arguably more sophisticated than the Republican right in discharging this larger responsibility.
>From the standpoint of its narrower "partisan" party interest, however, which is what we've been discussing, I do think its refusal to confront the Republicans and pass legislation which would have had immediate and direct benefits for the mass of the population (and the needs of the system) was based on a strategic miscalculation (see my previous posts) and conveyed a fatal impression of weakness which was borne out in the midterms.
In any case, I'm less interested in the political interests and behaviour of the DP leadership than I am of the DP's liberal base, which is the only force capable at present of putting meaningful pressure from below on the adminstration to alter its domestic and foreign policy. More interested in its political behaviour, for certain, than that of the small campus-based left which is the overriding preoccupation of those like yourself who come from that milieu and who have not had much experience with working class economic and political life outside of it.