[Marxism] Welding the link against independent anticapitalist politics

[lshan <lshan@xxxxxxx>]

Maine 2004 election results:
http://www.mainetoday.com/elections/2004/
Kerry	Democrat 	        364,153	53%
Bush	Republican 	        308,997	45%
Nader	Independent 	    7,476	1.1%
Cobb	Green 	            2,764	0.4%*
Badnarik	Libertarian 	1,855	0.3%
Peroutka	Constitution 	1,265	0.2%
* Article uses an updated figure of 2,941. Nader's vote tally is  
probably also larger.

Of course, we don't know who turned out for Nader and Camejo. Many were  
undoubtedly independents, rather than registered Greens. But if we  
assume that both Nader and Cobb only received Green votes, then  
Nader/Camejo got 40% of the Maine Green vote, while Cobb/LaMarche  
received only 15.5%. Maine Greens and independents were almost 3 to 1  
for Nader/Camejo over Cobb/LaMarche.

Putting aside that the Cobb/LaMarche faction felt that they were doing  
the correct thing, it appears that 40% of the hardcore registered Maine  
Greens resisted the Cobb ABB strategy. However, the results of the  
Maine Green caucuses for the Green Party national convention were  
"elected about half and half each for Ralph Nader and David Cobb, with  
a couple of Undecided and Nobody delegates.  After the first round of  
voting at the national convention, all but one of the Maine delegates  
voted for Cobb, the one other vote was for Nader." (August e-mail from  
Ben Meiklejohn).

Other Maine Greens undoubtedly followed the Cobb/LaMarche strategy and  
voted for Kerry. As LaMarche said, there was the possibility that Maine  
would be a "battleground" state and she might end up voting for Kerry  
herself.

Although the combined Green Party candidates got 1.4% of the Maine  
vote, local GP candidates got from 19 to 52 percent, one Portland (the  
most liberal city in the state) member re-elected with 52% of the vote.

Despite the claim that the strategy will help the party grow, this  
strategy leads to the Green Party becoming more closely integrated as a  
wing of the Democratic Party. The result of this strategy is that  
supporters are urged to vote for the Greens locally, but hand power off  
to "the lesser evil." This is only a variant of Democratic Party  
liberalism. The DP has thousands of liberal or "left" figures who are  
100% pure on many domestic issues, including the environment,  
single-payer health insurance, etc., but who are completely welded to  
the hierarchy of DP elected officials. The continuum runs from  
California Assemblywoman Jackie Goldberg and Congressman Dennis  
Kucinich to Ted Kennedy. In the past there were New York Congresswoman  
Bella Abzug and Senator Eugene McCarthy.

The only difference is that regular Democratic Party politicians don't  
call it a "lesser evil." During the Democratic Party primary debates,  
Kucinich enthusiastically claimed that he would support any of his  
opponents against George Bush.

The result is the same. It’s a strategy and practice that ties those  
who want to be for social justice and against war and imperialism to  
the twin parties (one in, one out--“in waiting” or as “replacement  
troops”) of capitalist social and economic devastation and war.

The Brunswick ME article that stimulated me to write this note is at:
http://www.timesrecord.com/website/main.nsf/news.nsf/0/ 
35808C23A72E971305256F4A0059052F?Opendocument
or http://makeashorterlink.com/?G591256C9

Brian Shannon


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