[lbo-talk] Obama reelection prospect

Dissenting Wren dissentingwren at yahoo.com
Fri Feb 18 13:58:58 PST 2011


Your view will never be tested because the myth of a self-starting campaign based on huge numbers of small contributions is an utter fantasy. The capacity to solicit a huge number of small contributions requires a large up-front investment, available only to those who are able to shake the money tree. That doesn't include left-wing candidates. So, debating whether a left-wing candidate could be viable if that constraint were to be magically lifted is always going to take place in the absence of evidence.

It's hard to argue with a Menckenesque dismissal of Amurricans because (a) it's partly right, and (b) disagreeing makes you sound like a pollyanna. Here's my best response: every country is dominated by the culture of its booboisie, narrow-minded, egotistical little fucks who believe in six impossible things before breakfast, despise their neighbors because they despise themselves, grouse about the lazy fuckers living on the dole, and whine when they prick their pinky fingers. A colleague who had recently been to Egypt was very skeptical that the protests there would come to anything because her interactions with the Egyptian booboisie had convinced her that their class prejudices would get in the way of any kind of real solidarity. And yet...

Closer to home, I can tell you that Wisconsin cops, by and large, are little tinpot Nazi wannabes...yet here they are, handing out bratwurst to the protesters occupying the Wisconsin Capitol.

So, if ignorant, hidebound culture were to prevent the left from getting anywhere, then the left would never get anywhere anyplace ever. But sometimes it does. Ergo, the U.S. culture of stupidity is not the primary impediment to the left here. If you're going to try something to compete with money, try race, which really does fuck the U.S. up in ways that not many other countries can approximate.

----- Original Message ---- From: Wojtek S <wsoko52 at gmail.com> To: lbo-talk at lbo-talk.org Sent: Fri, February 18, 2011 2:15:17 PM Subject: Re: [lbo-talk] Obama reelection prospect

Dissenting Wren: "1) The primary obstacle to viability of left-wing candidates is money."

[WS:] It may be an obstacle, but I do not think it is the primary one. There is enough money in unions and liberal quarters of the society to fund a decent campaign, left or otherwise.

In my view, the primary obstacle is that the US society is by an large petit bourgeois. They love their country but hate paying taxes, they believe in god and hate godless communism/secular humanism, they think their little podunk is the center of the world and they are suspicious of outsiders, they think of themselves as self-made rugged individuals and their "wet dream" is to own a small business and live in a cozy, familiar place, and be envied by their neighbors. Anything that left has to offer - from workers right to organize, to social justice and equality and to international solidarity has zero appeal to them.

I am pretty certain that even an European-style social democrat (not to mention a socialist) would not get more than a quarter of the popular vote here, and even that would be only under most favorable circumstances. This is why those are sympathetic to left causes would not give any money to a left candidate - it would be an utter waste of resources.

Wojtek ___________________________________ http://mailman.lbo-talk.org/mailman/listinfo/lbo-talk



More information about the lbo-talk mailing list