tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23471801.post115107818346033136..comments2023-10-21T07:44:20.549-04:00Comments on The Existence Machine: Some brief thoughts on Liberals and the antiwar movementRichardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08014014605639738887noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23471801.post-1151414743770880572006-06-27T09:25:00.000-04:002006-06-27T09:25:00.000-04:00I don't have time for quite such a thoughtful resp...I don't have time for quite such a thoughtful response, but I think that as long as the options are "hatez the Repuglicans" (which construction I find utterly puerile and gratuitous) or "cannibalization of the Democrats" we have a very serious problem.<BR/><BR/>The reason we have "nonsense that leads to Nader" is that in the above formulation, our only options are to vote against any Republican while ignoring the idiocy of the Democratic establishment or to abandon the "two-party" system and "strategic voting" altogether and find a candidate we can cast a ballot for without feeling nauseated.<BR/><BR/>There is a third option, and it's well past time the Democrats accept it: they could actually take progressive action on ANYTHING.jwerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13466841786162645311noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23471801.post-1151293468026468572006-06-25T23:44:00.000-04:002006-06-25T23:44:00.000-04:00Okay. Thanks for your polite and thoughtful respo...Okay. Thanks for your polite and thoughtful response. If I were near enough I'd buy you a beer, and then I'd bitch a lot more about Nader. (My wife had to pull me away from a confrontation with a Nader canvasser who told me to "vote your hopes, not your fears"; "I'm not just voting for my own damned feelings," I snapped, and . . . we did not have a mutually enlghtening exchange.<BR/><BR/>I remember -- ruefully -- how smug (honestly) I felt a decade ago when it looked like the factions of the Republican party were tearing it apart. These days, it seems like the best hope the Democrats have is for the Republicans to do it again, now that they're on top and srguing over the division of the spoils of power. Unfortunately, the Democrats aren't just fighting the Republicans, not just themselves, but the media as well; even with the public as critical of the Bush administration as they are now, the Democrats can't get an even break in coverage. If there were a Democrat who could somehow sidestep the media and appeal directly to the people.... well, I don't know how that would be done.Scrapshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17482867072396893124noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23471801.post-1151206012001655612006-06-24T23:26:00.000-04:002006-06-24T23:26:00.000-04:00Yes, politics is compromise. It's very complicate...Yes, politics is compromise. It's very complicated. And, actually, I agree that Cockburn's disdain of the political blogosphere is excessive. And, of course, the Bush Administration <I>is</I> particularly monstrous. I don't deny that. I winced a little when I re-read my line about Bush being "superficially harder to stomach": I am not unable to see that Bush is actually objectively worse. But, domestically, things got worse under Clinton; that they're getting worse still even faster under Bush doesn't automatically make Clinton a hero. And, foreign-policy-wise, the parties, as a class, share the same basic worldview (that an invasion of Iraq was a lot less likely under Gore does not change this essential fact). In any event, yes, the Bush Administration is who we have in front of us and who has to be fought. And I want the Democrats to be able to defeat them. The thing is, I look at what's happening and I despair myself. Maybe I'm too pessimistic, but I don't see the Democrats getting their heads out of their asses. It's no doubt a waste of time (I mean, because it's old news, not because you're not interested or don't already know) noting the ways in which the Democrats have been active partners in producing the current conditions. You're right, people need to see that the Republicans are the bigger enemy. And we do need a political fighting machine capable of doing that. But the Democrats need to differentiate themselves from the Republicans. That means not pussy-footing around on certain basic issues. <BR/><BR/>I won't apologize for having voted for Nader. And I won't vote for anyone who does not oppose this war and actions like it. I'm not looking for perfection, I'm looking for anything, any candidate, any movement prepared to seriously challenge the status quo. I don't quite have my ear to the ground to know exactly what the Democrats are up to, though. Are there some interesting people out there you think I should know about? Here in Baltimore we're watching Mayor O'Malley's run for governor, and it looks like he actually should be able to unseat Ehrlich, who has been a disaster. We were interested in the more leftwing Doug Duncan, who appeared to be making some headway, but who had to drop out this week because of his recent diagnosis of clinical depression. We kind of expect O'Malley to abandon the City's needs once he's Governor, because the City doesn't have the tax base, etc, and that's what happens, and he wants to position himself, a la Clinton, to make a run for the presidency. Politics as career rather than as public service, you know?<BR/><BR/>Anyway, thanks for the comment. No need to apologize for crankiness.Richardhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08014014605639738887noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23471801.post-1151189235346700062006-06-24T18:47:00.000-04:002006-06-24T18:47:00.000-04:00It's news that another member of the pundit class ...It's news that another member of the pundit class disdains the blog writers? If MoveOn and Kos have "zero political effect" -- a typical Cockburnian obvious excess that any writer with a decent internal editor would excise -- how much does the Nation have?<BR/><BR/>I'm glad that some part of the left is willing to point out the cravenness of Democratic Party Leadership -- and I hear a lot more Democrats complaining about the Democratic Party, the Clintons, etc, than you appear to -- but the nature of the system we are stuck with is compromise. Say what you will about the Democratic party -- even if you have to resort to silly implications like saying we only <I>might</I> not have fought the war in Iraq if Gore were president -- it is clear that this administration is monstrous and incompetent on a historical scale. Yes, they are without question much worse than Clinton. It is not a loss of perspective to recognize this, nor to focus most of our anger on Bush and his thugs.<BR/><BR/>Furthermore, this is politics. We are forever hearing from disgruntled leftists that the right plays the game better, that we need to toughen up, that we need to persuade the public as they do, etc. Then when we focus our political efforts on directing people's anger toward the Republican Party, we get told that we're forgetting to properly blame the Democrats. Well, which do you want? A good fighting machine, or a painfully self-examining, self-eating left? This is the kind of nonsense that led to Nader, and the self-satsified abandonment of the adult policial arena by those who preferred feeling good about their vote, and to hell with the consequences.<BR/><BR/>If all the people I hear complaining about the deficiencies of the Democratic Party actually worked to change the Democratic Party, we'd see real change in my lifetime. It seems that a lot of folks would rather not sully themselves with political compromise, preferring to decry everything as equally noxious ("equally brazen," "equally offensive") -- the high road to perdition.<BR/><BR/><I><BR/>But the left should not pretend that either Gore or Kerry were going to be agents for any kind of real progressive change. In fact, they and their partners in the Democratic Party are actively part of the problem.<BR/></I><BR/><BR/>As opposed to a passive part of the problem, griping. So long as we're falling short of "real progressive change," we must not "pretend" that there's any real difference at all.<BR/><BR/>Of course, some of us can afford to pretned more than others can.<BR/><BR/>In my goddamned opinion.<BR/><BR/>If I am unwarrantedly crany, I apologize. I am sick of political cannibalism, sick of the cult of perfection, and sick to death of Alexander Cockburn and his ilk. If people <I>on the left</I> cannot see that things are worsening much faster under Bush, if they still think we ought to make a hig priority of never forgetting to deplore the Democrats, I despair. If there is a plausible alternative to electing Democrats right now, at least as a goddamned stopgap measure, I would like to know what it is.Scrapshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17482867072396893124noreply@blogger.com