ken hanly: . . .meaning that Obama is unlikely to suffer any political consequences as a result of his policy in this election year.
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Ken may well agree with what follows, which focuses on the implicit 'drive' of the post as written, without reference to its total context in his Blog.
Why do "we" give a shit whether or not a particular fact or set of facts does or does not affect the electoral fortunes of the present Imperialist Leader? Who is "we" here: All those actively involved in resistance to the Empire of Capital (Ellen Meiksins Wood's phrase). We have no concern with anything involved in the 2012 presidential campaign. Rather, our primary focus must be double: a) Keeping the anti-war movement _nominally_ alive (thereby providing a center of attraction when again masses of semi-leftists are drawn to that movement, and (b) reaching out to those opposed to u.s. aggression but not active in the ongoing struggle. The second also involves deepening and expanding the understanding of those still active in our work, clarifying for them the fundamental commitment of DP leadership to the policy they opposed. We accomplish that, if at all, through the first focus, keeping visible the Movement, crafting actions & programs which hold together our ranks as well as reaching out to our _current_ constituency, those whose passive views might be amenable to activation! The outer limits of our concern, then (_at the present time_) are that 23%; with Obama's supporters we have no concern.
And viewed in this light, 23% is a huge constituency for the left. How can we attract them (not by argument or "persuasion," utterly blunt tools) but by the creation of visible hope that their sentiments are not theirs alone, that there exists active opposition to neoliberalism that might grow; that their participation in that opposition might be significant.
And the focus of this post on the 77% is therefore not only politically irrelevant, it is counter-productive in that irrelevance. It diffuses the thinking of anti-war activists.
Carrol