[lbo-talk] k] Blog Post: After the Wisconsin Uprising

Wojtek S wsoko52 at gmail.com
Wed Feb 8 08:31:10 PST 2012


Michael Yates: "Journalist Glenn Greenwald puts his disgust with SEIU in pointed terms. “Having SEIU officials—fresh off endorsing the Obama reelection campaign—shape, fund, dictate and decree an anti-GOP, pro-Obama march is about as antithetical as one can imagine to what the Occupy movement has been.”

[WS:] I beg to differ. Not voting for Obama or other Dems is a BAD strategy for everyone on the left, not just liberals, and for that matter for the majority of the 99 percent. Here is why.

Not voting for a Democrats means election of a Republican, period. If a Republican gets elected, the main focus of the left will be to slow down the onslaught on labor, various minorities, social protections and civil rights, and hoping to elect a Dem for that purpose (cf. Wisconsin.) If a Democrat gets elected, however, the left will face pretty much the same pressures in a slightly nicer packaging, but eventually it will become obvious that the existing political institutions are inadequate to protect the 99 percent.

So if you want a radical change - consistently vote for Democrats. This will demonstrate the limitations of the electoral system itself and eventually delegitimate it, which in turn will prompt people to look for alternative systems rather than merely alternative politicians. Otherwise, it will be the political business cycle as usual.

Wojtek



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