[lbo-talk] Fwd: Noam goes with Barry ?

[Eric Beck]

On Mon, Mar 12, 2012 at 12:31 PM, Jordan Hayes <jmhayes at j-o-r-d-a-n.com> wrote:
> Eric Beck:
>
>>> Nonvoters are not all that different from voters ...
>>
>>
>> But that's not the point. The point is that they didn't vote.
>
>
> That doesn't sound like "a point" to me; what's the implication you're
> getting at?
>
> The usual one, which Carl seems to try to make explicit, is that the reason
> the US gets the outcomes we get is because only a small percentage of people
> are required to win an election.  Doug refutes that, which sounds like a
> point to me.  What's yours?

My point would be similar but with a different emphasis. To me, the
relevance of voter nonparticipation is not trying find the ideology
that lurks behind it but reckoning with the refusal/nonparticipation
as a political act itself. Why dig beneath the surface when the
surface is the most relevant fact.