[PEN-L:4691] beltway bunk, cont.

[JDevine@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx]

I wrote: > ... If there were a mass movement out there on the left,
the real left, even Republicans like Dole and Clinton would
listen (as Nixon did before them).<

Max S. asks>> But there isn't, so where does that leave us?<<

we have to ask "what does voting (or working) for Clinton (or
Dole) do to create that movement in the future? (My answer:
nothing. Neither of them will do anything to mobilize anything
except support for themselves.)

It is imperative (especially in times like these) to have a _long
term perspective_, rather than focusing on the immediate events
and Clinton/Dole-type horse-races. (Except for amusement: I'd
like to ask both of these guys "if politicians wore patches on
their jerseys to represent their sponsors (the way many athletes
do) which patch would be largest on yours?" I'd also ask Dole if
he'd require drug testing for recipients of corporate welfare,
since he's called for d.t. for ordinary welfare recipients and
has expressed concern about corporate welfare.)

> Clinton is a  disaster on the civil liberties front.<

>>How's that? For ATF repression of the white proletariat?<<

I won't dwell on the details. Rather, I'll make two general
points:

1) If seen as acceptable, the tactics used against the far-right
will be applied to the left, as they were in the 1940s & 1950s &
1960s & 1970s, when there was a significant left outside
academia. Remember that the political establishment (including
Dole & Clinton) equate the extreme left and the extreme right
and will be perfectly willing to stretch the Bill of Rights to
suppress them.

2) Clinton seems part of the movement to incarcerate all young
Black men. He continues the silly and self-defeating (and
many-incarcerating) "War on Drugs" and paints himself as a
"Lawnorder Democrat."

>>More seriously, I think one difference between Bill and Bob is
that the former, if confronted with a left mass-based insurgency
would exploit it to get a lot of good things done, as FDR did when
the opportunity arose. For lack of such a situation, Clinton can't
pass anything that fifteen Republican Senators can't see their
way clear to going along with. That was the reality before the
1994 elections and it's even more true presently. ...<<

But Clinton didn't even try, say, to push up the minimum wage,
when he had much more support in Congress than he has now. He
instead used his political capital to fight for NAFTA, GATT, and
an excessively complicated and bureaucratic and pro-insurance
company health "plan." He had the beginnings of some grass-roots
support with "It's the economy stupid" and immediately turned
around and slapped them with NAFTA & GATT.

>>My hypothesis is that a mass movement will arise as economic conditions,
failures of the right, and explicitly business-like corruption scandals
blossom (as in the Thirties, when outrage over stock market manipulation
helped FDR set up the SEC, among other things). I speculate that this
movement will be led partly by grass-roots leaders but also be
by populist-oriented Members of Congress, labor leaders, and miscellaneous
defectors from the status quo who will react to opportunities when they
arise, and not before. It's not going to be initiated by Bill's adventures
in the sack or Hilary's legal shenanigans. <<

Yeah, but what can we do NOW to help that movement develop? (The mass
movement of the 1930s had its roots in the 1920s; it didn't just spring up
overnight.) I think telling the truth about Bill & Hill's Big Adventure
helps. Telling the truth is always important. Voting for Clinton won't
help. Voting for Nader may do so. Imagine if Nader got a million votes
even though he's not campaigning. It's be a postmodern version of Debs'
getting a million votes despite being in jail. It might spark some hope.
Mass movements don't arise without some kind of hope ("rising
expectations" and all that).

in pen-l solidarity,

Jim Devine   jdevine@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Econ. Dept., Loyola Marymount Univ., 7900 Loyola Blvd.
Los Angeles, CA 90045-8410 USA
310/338-2948 (daytime, during workweek); FAX: 310/338-1950
"It takes a busload of faith to get by." -- Lou Reed.