Re: [Marxism] On the Democratic Party question

[Benjamin Morgan <foreverblaze89@xxxxxxxxx>]

dave.walters@xxxxxxxxxxx wrote:

 would say that Joaquin is correct, formally, about Marx. In his article on the 
formation and early victories of the Repubican party, such as here:
http://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1861/10/11.htm he clearly extrolls 
the nature of the rise of the Republicans againt the arch-reactionary 
Confederates. This is a common theme for him on US politics.

Comrade Ben:

First on Marx support of Republicans: During the mid 1800's to early 1930's the 
Republican party was essentially democratic. The democrats traditionally were 
pro-business, anti-slavery and anti civil rights read this excerpt from 
wikipedia on the origins of the Republican party:

The election of Abraham Lincoln in 1860 began a new era of  Republican 
dominance based in the industrial Northeast and agricultural Midwest.  
Republicans still often refer to their party as the "party of Lincoln." Lincoln 
 proved brilliantly successful in uniting all the factions of his party to 
fight  for the Union. However, he often disagreed with the Radical  Republicans 
who demanded harsher measures toward the South. In Congress, the  party passed 
major legislation to promote rapid modernization, including a  national banking 
system, high tariffs, the first temporary income tax, many  excise taxes, paper 
money issued without backing ("greenbacks"), a huge national  debt, homestead 
laws, and land grants to aid higher education, railroads and  agriculture.
 The Republicans denounced the northern anti-war Democrats as disloyal 
Copperheads and won enough War Democrats to maintain  their majority in 1862, 
and reelect Lincoln by a landslide in 1864. During Reconstruction, 1865-1877,  
how to deal with the ex-Confederates and the freed slaves or Freedmen were the 
major issues. President Andrew Johnson, a  Democrat that had been nominated as 
Lincoln's running-mate by the National Union  (Republican) convention, broke 
with the Radicals in 1866. The showdown came in  the Congressional elections of 
 1866, in which the Radicals won a sweeping victory and took full control of  
Reconstruction, passing key laws over Johnson's vetoes. The Radicals imposed  
Republican rule on the Southâ??a coalition of Freedmen, Scalawags, and 
Carpetbaggers, who were deeply resented by the  conservative 
ex-Confederates.[26]
 Elected in 1868, Ulysses S. Grant supported radical  reconstruction programs 
in the South, the Fourteenth  Amendment, equal civil and voting rights for the 
freedmen; most of all,  Grant was the hero of the war veterans, who marched to 
his tune. Reconstruction  came to an end when the contested election of 1876 
was awarded to Republican Rutherford B.  Hayes who promised, through the 
unofficial Compromise of 1877, to withdraw federal  troops from control of the 
last three Southern states. The region then became  the Solid South, giving  
overwhelming majorities of its electoral votes and Congressional seats to the  
Democrats until 1964.
 As the Northern post-war economy boomed with industry, railroads, mines, and  
fast-growing cities, as well as prosperous agriculture, the Republicans took  
credit and promoted policies to keep the fast growth going. The Democratic 
Party  was largely controlled by pro-business Bourbon Democrats until 1896. The 
GOP  supported big business generally, hard money (i.e., the gold standard), 
high tariffs, and generous pensions for  Union veterans. By 1890, the 
Republicans had agreed to the Sherman  Antitrust Act and the Interstate 
Commerce Commission  in response to complaints from owners of small businesses 
and farmers. Civil service reform was a  bipartisan program that eliminated 
most patronage by 1900. Foreign affairs  seldom became partisan issues (except 
for the annexation of Hawaii, which  Republicans favored and Democrats 
opposed). Much more salient were cultural  issues. The GOP supported the 
pietistic Protestants (especially the Methodists,  Congregationalists,
 Presbyterians, and Scandinavian Lutherans) who demanded Prohibition. That 
angered wet  Republicans, especially German Americans, who broke ranks in 
1890-1892,  handing power to the Democrats.


The Democrats never severed their chains from big business! Marx was analyzing 
their progressive tendencies at the time; not pledging allegiance to them! 
However, Louis raises an interesting point about critical support, a number of 
liberal voters believe they can choose the lesser of two evils in a pitiful 
attempt to marginally mitigate the standard for living under the modern day 
republicans. This is a sad pitfall to get trapped in. No matter how progressive 
a canidate of the democratic party may seem during elections remember they will 
never bite the hand that feeds them. Political theory 101 teaches if you want 
to win an election you need to sway some of the opposition party into your 
favor because clear democrat/republican splits don't win elections. A 
revolutionary democrat if one ever exist will never win a election under the 
current political climate. As soon as he down talks his masters the moderate 
republicans will link arms with the neo-cons; while the democrats
 themselves will yank back the perverbial leash on their canidate and break 
rank. Any comrade who believes that supporting the democrats is a new radical 
way of challenging the capitalist system should immediately contact Sam Webb 
from the CPUSA and should discuss the formation of a support group where you 
and Madea Benjamin hit the streets lobbying! In conclusion, the Greens could 
potentially become a reasonable option in the future. However, trying to 
distinguish between the democrats and republicans in post-industrial 
capitalism, is a waste of unfruitful time, like trying to distinguish between 
us orthodox Marxist and classical Communist 






?Whenever death may surprise us, let it be welcome if our battle cry has 
reached even one receptive ear and another hand reaches out to take up our 
arms.?
   
  ~ Ernesto "Che" Guevara
       
---------------------------------
Sick sense of humor? Visit Yahoo! TV's Comedy with an Edge to see what's on, 
when. 
________________________________________________
YOU MUST clip all extraneous text before replying to a message.
Send list submissions to: Marxism@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Set your options at: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/listinfo/marxism