RE: [Marxism] Why workers voted "against their interests", and a comment on gay marriage

["Craven, Jim" <JCraven@xxxxxxxxx>]

--- Fred Feldman <ffeldman@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

> A more correct formulation would be: "Why did many
> working people vote for Bush, who has interests diametrically opposed 
> to theirs, in a race with Kerry, who has interests diametrically 
> opposed to theirs.

Yes, that is so... although still, if worker A says "I am voting for
Bush because I support the war on Iraq, oppose abortion and gay rights,
believe in the death penalty, and think that the best thing for workers
is to give tax breaks to businesses," and worker B says "I am voting for
Kerry because I oppose the war on Iraq, favor reproductive rights and
LGBT rights, oppose the death penalty, and think that we workers have to
protect ourselves against the bosses," you would admit that there is a
difference in consciousness there.  Worker A is just in the wrong place,
whereas worker B is closer to the right place but mistakenly thinks
Kerry is there too. 

I mostly agree with the rest of what you wrote though.

Lou Paulsen

Response Jim C:

 One of my students asked me how I felt about gay marriage. My answer
was that gays should have as much right to be miserable as non-gays. 

This is nothing new. Fascists have always known that to build a mass
social base for a party that can only represent the interests of a few
oligarchs, single-issueism is the way to go. Appeal to poor Catholic
workers on the abortion or gay issues. Appeal to out of work workers
with anti-immigrant bashing. Appeal to wealthy gays with tax cuts
(according to some exit polls, an estimated 23% of self-identified gays
and lesbians voted for Bush), appeal to poor white workers with nativism
and racism... This tactic is aided and abetted by those on the other
side who do the same: single-issueism. I have seen native activists who
have nothing to say about anything other than "native issues". I have
seen gay/lesbian activists who have nothing to say about anything other
than gay/lesbian issues. I have seen American workers who have nothing
to say about anything other than nativism and keeping American jobs. I
have seen feminists who have nothing to say about anything other than
"women's issues." And the list goes on and on.

Jim C.

_______________________________________________
Marxism mailing list
Marxism@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/listinfo/marxism