Clancy Sigal attacks Camejo

[Louis Proyect <lnp3@xxxxxxxxx>]

(The Camejo campaign is beginning to get the same kind of negative 
attention that the Nader campaign for president got in 2000, which is a 
sign that it is making headway. Clancy Sigal is the author of "Going Away", 
a 'roman a clef' revolving around his discussions with fellow CP'ers in the 
1950s, who have become disillusioned by the suppression of the revolt in 
Hungary, the Khrushchev revelations, etc. He was a black-listed 
screenwriter who eventually made his way to England, where he hooked up 
with Doris Lessing, another CP'er and author. In her "Golden Notebook", 
Sigal (Saul Green) is an important character. He comes across as a total 
scumbag. In a June 17, 1989 Guardian piece, written on the occasion of his 
return to the USA from England, Sigal admits, "In the Sixties, I changed 
from being John Reed, the US radical journalist, to Colonel Blimp." Yeah, I 
guess so.)


NY Times, Oct. 17, 2002

NOTES FROM LOS ANGELES
A Gray Future for California Voters
By CLANCY SIGAL

LOS ANGELES ? My liberal friends insist that my soul is doomed to eternal 
damnation because I worked for Ralph Nader in the 2000 election that threw 
the presidency to George W. Bush. They're probably right. There are nights 
when the Devil's pitchfork keeps me awake because I, having reached for the 
third-party lever, made John Ashcroft our top law officer and war with Iraq 
a religious crusade.

I'd like a rest from sleep-destroying guilt. But the midterm elections are 
upon us and I am a Californian.

The governor's race here is between two majestically unappealing 
candidates: the incumbent, Gray Davis, and his doltish Republican opponent, 
Bill Simon Jr. Combined, they make a towering argument for any third party.

Mr. Davis, a liberal authoritarian, is hugely unpopular because he 
mishandled California's energy crisis and is more brazenly on the take for 
campaign funds ? $50 million and counting, a new national record ? than a 
Capone-era Chicago alderman. He is like one of those old carnival 
speak-your-weight machines that won't cough up unless you put money in it.

Mr. Davis, who has presidential ambitions, masterminded a brilliant 
campaign in the June primary by using attack ads to defeat the best 
Republican candidate, Richard Riordan, formerly mayor of Los Angeles, thus 
ensuring the Republicans' selection of a weak right-winger, namely Mr. Simon.

I don't know anybody, aside from a few compromised pols and Hollywood 
celebrities, who will vote for Mr. Davis without holding his or her nose. 
Mr. Davis's support for the death penalty is bad enough, but he has 
overruled his own, appointed parole board at least 80 times, regardless of 
circumstances, in refusing their recommendations to release convicted 
murderers.

And yet: despite a lifelong habit of supporting alternative parties, I will 
vote for Mr. Davis, too. There is a difference between Mr. Davis and Mr. 
Simon. The difference is sometimes microscopic, but sometimes significant. 
A stroke of the governor's pen can affect a lot of lives.

The Green Party candidate for governor in California, Peter Camejo, an 
investment adviser, is both attractive and uncrazy. He leads a party of 
147,000 registered Greens and probably many more sympathizers. He could 
swing a close election if the Greens could be mobilized to vote ? which 
many of them refuse to do because they are disgusted by the present 
two-party system.

Mr. Camejo is devoted to more than just traditional Green causes like 
preserving California's old-growth forests. He has called for a statewide 
minimum wage of $10.50, a ban on the death penalty, legalization of gay 
marriage and loans to homeowners to install solar energy.

Yet despite his instinct for outreach, Mr. Camejo falls into the Green 
habit of marginalization. He wasted time on the campaign trail attacking 
Senator Barbara Boxer and Representative Barbara Lee for being too soft in 
criticizing the war on terror, even though they have been among the war's 
few opponents in Congress. "You can't solve problems gradually and 
peacefully," Mr. Camejo said this spring. "You have to make it an 
explosion." This is poor politics as well as poor word choice.

full: http://www.nytimes.com/2002/10/17/opinion/17SIGA.html


Louis Proyect
www.marxmail.org


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