[WS:] True. But a lot of times people who expend their energies on behalf of the DP do not have radical goals and expectations in mind. They like neoliberalism, they just want to tweak it here and there, put a human face on it if you will. So their energies do not get wasted even if they do not get everything they want. But they get something. OWS was an outcome of a curtain suddenly falling off and people seeing the ugly reality of the US politics. The reaction was rather tame, given the deep shit that 30 years of neoliberalism puts us in. This further proves my point about the lack of radical goals in the vast majority of the US population.
I am more sympathetic to Charles' views on the DP than to those who routinely criticize him on this list, although I could not force myself to actually work with Democrats. Way too much bullshit to my taste. Voting is a different thing - one does not have to deal with the utter idiocy of political campaigning - just go in, pull the lever and you're done. It is mostly symbolic, or latter-days magic if you will, and I admit being guilty of it. But it is either that or the delusion of mobilizing prisoners and other fringe elements to start a revo, or similar kind of wishful thinking. The latter does not seem very different from the idiocy of political campaigning that I cannot bear, so the former it is, at least for me.
To put it differently, I have no problems with compromising and settling for crumbs when you cannot get the whole happy meal. Such is the nature of politics. My problem is of a different kind, that obtaining even crumbs is more and more difficult due to the overwhelming power of the neoliberal juggernaut that can steam roll anyone in its way without giving out anything.
Wojtek
On Fri, Dec 23, 2011 at 2:49 PM, Doug Henwood <dhenwood at panix.com> wrote:
>
> On Dec 23, 2011, at 2:30 PM, Wojtek S wrote:
>
>> The difference between Dems and Reps is minimal, mainly
>> the rhetorical style, but voting is a very low transaction cost
>> activity, so why not.
>
> Actually I think a lot of the people active early on in Occupy Wall Street and its spinoffs were young & enthusiastic Obama campaigners in 2008, disillusioned by what a tool of capital he turned out to be. It's not just about voting - people can expend a lot more time and energy than that. In a lot of cases, that expenditure is a waste - but in this case, it turned out to be productive in an unexpected way.
>
> Doug
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