RE: [Marxism] re: Supporting the resistance?

[Joaquín Bustelo <jbustelo@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Carlos Rivera makes a number of counterfactual assertions about the recent
election to conclude: "Outside of say, New York, San Francisco and Los
Angeles, the overwhelming majority of the people are either for the war, or
for the domestic policies, or both."

The Voting Age Population resident in the United States in November, 2004,
was officially estimated at 217,800,000; of which Bush got 62,040,606 votes,
28%. Sen. Kerry got 59,028,109, 27%. Turnout was 55%, hardly a "record
turnout," until the 1970's, turnout was always higher. 

I do not know if the estimate includes any portion of the undocumented
population. If it includes none, then the actual VAP would have been around
237,000,000; if the census bureau VAP includes the official estimate of the
undocumented then it was probably around 227,000,000, as that I believe is
an undercount of about 10,000,000. Either way, this would pull turnout lower
into the 50's.

That shows the truth -- that U.S. bourgeois politics have yet to recover
from "the 1960's" (the combined impact of the Black Liberation Movement, the
movement against the Vietnam War, and the Watergate scandal).

Just as the "New Deal" generation of the 1930's passed on to their children
a strong pro-Democrat bias, so did the generation of the 1960's pass on an
attitude of distrust and even cynicism towards the political system.

As for the "two coasts" myth, my county, DeKalb county, which is well inland
and part of metro Atlanta, Bush got 73,570 and Kerry 200,787: that's about
27% Bush to 73% for Kerry. In Fulton County, which is Atlanta proper plus a
bunch of other places, the vote was: 134,372 Bush, 199,436 Kerry, in other
words, 40-60 against Bush. Those are the two most populous counties in
Georgia and the core of metro Atlanta. 

For another angle on the falsity of some huge reactionary shift by the U.S.
population in general, look at the social security poll numbers: the more
they hear of Bush's plan, the less people like it -- and he hasn't yet put
forward the savaging of benefits that will be necessary under his proposals.

The point is you're ignorant and impressionistic about the political
geography of the United States. Someone writes something in a newspaper or
says it on TV and you *believe* it, but it ain't so.

Joaquín



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