[Marxism] As regards the Kerry campaign

["Jurriaan Bendien" <andromeda246@xxxxxxxxx>]

The way I would sketch it (correct me if I am wrong) is that the Democrats
aim to win in large part through a protest vote. The problem they have is
one of getting viable coalitions together, and the fact that, when they are
in power, they would have to do things which are not popular (somebody has
to pay for the Bush spending spree and so on). The challenge to the
Democrats is to say clearly what they are going to do, but, they probably
cannot say too much about what they must do, because that might not make
them popular. So Kerry wants the themes, which catch the protest vote and
the popular sentiment, but without saying too much in terms of specifics.
Probably, from his point of view, the problem is that whereas many people
are slacked off about the conduct of politics, relatively few people want to
mobilise to do something constructive about it, and even if Kerry becomes
president this doesn't necessarily create much more DP power in Congress and
the Senate. And so there's a sense in which he is caught betwixt and
between. It's clear what the American working class basically wants: decent
jobs at acceptable pay, peace, and a halt to federal spending on all sorts
of things that do not benefit them. Even apart from Bush's military
adventures, that should be sufficient for him to oust the Bush
administration. Hence, insofar as it is a question of grilling Kerry, I
think the focus should be on what he actually specifically aims to do, what
his vision is. How does he see the problems, and how valid is that ?

Jurriaan



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