Re: Michael Pollak's Pebble Theory

["Devine, James" <jdevine@xxxxxxx>]

A major reason for not seeing an avalanche has been the flaccidity and me-too-ism of the US Democratic Party. This is, of course, the result of the collapse of the external backbones of the DP, i.e., the labor movement, the feminists, the environmentalists, etc., so that the main force driving the DP is fund-raising and the need to please those with the funds. 

------------------------
Jim Devine jdevine@xxxxxxx &  http://bellarmine.lmu.edu/~jdevine




> -----Original Message-----
> From: Michael Perelman [mailto:michael@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx]
> Sent: Thursday, October 02, 2003 10:45 AM
> To: PEN-L@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> Subject: [PEN-L] Michael Pollak's Pebble Theory
> 
> 
> Michael may be correct that it was a pebble causing an avalanche, but
> the absence of an avalanche heretofor seems to defy the laws 
> of physics,
> let alone common sense.  The Bushits screwed over virtually 
> everbody to
> profit a small group of people.  It skillfully applied hot 
> button issues
> to distract people whose economic interests were undermined by the
> administration's policies -- religious groups, gun people ....
> 
> I assume that reporters were afraid to be the first to speak up, lest
> they be hammered by the vile people running the place.
> 
> Certainly the Iraq debacle and the weak economy should have given them
> backbone earlier.
> 
> I would have expected that the strong antiwar movement would have
> generated some legs, but it seems to have been quieted.
> 
> Today was the first round of good news I have seen in quite some time.
> Arnold apologizing.  Rush as a druggie.  When I got up this morning I
> was blurry eyed.  When I saw the subject line of LBO, Rush resigns, I
> though I was dreaming because I read it as Bush resigns.  But to think
> of those bastards screwing up with the Wilson affair ....
> 
> But here I get to my main point.  Why does it take peripheral 
> matters --
> Rush's drugs, Arnold's gropes, Ms. Plame -- to weaken the right
> [assuming that all this does not fizzle]?  Why have we not 
> been able to
> make the case that we have been on the short end of a class war fro
> decades and that Bush is just stepping it up a bit?  Why have we not
> been able to create a critique of the economy or even better 
> a vision of
> a future economy to make people excited and energetic?
> 
> What is to be done?, as an old Russian once wrote?
> 
> --
> 
> Michael Perelman
> Economics Department
> California State University
> michael@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> Chico, CA 95929
> 530-898-5321
> fax 530-898-5901
>