PEN-L message, Re: [Fwd: Swans' Release: July 19, 2004]

In a message dated 7/18/2004 5:05:30 PM Central Standard Time,

sartesian@xxxxxxxxxxxxx writes: I've stay out of this discussion, to everybody's relief (and my own), but is it possible that anyone can really endorse voting for a national Democratic candidate as progressive, or even the lesser evil?

I guess so, but it takes a complete disavowal of history to do so. It takes a deliberate denial of reality.

Ask a simple question: Are the Democratic Party and its national candidates calling for immediate, unconditional withdrawal from Iraq?

No.

I believe that voting for the lesser of two evils is also driven by fear and means endorsing the evil you happen to see as "less." An enormous section of society - the working class, that actually votes . . . is scared to death. Voting for the lesser of two evils means that the lesser evil can prevail. Not voting . . . from the perspective of the lesser of two evils reality, means that the evil that is not less . . . wins.

We have to face our fears in society.

Breaking with the two party system in its actual mechanics means that the greater evil is going to momentarily triumph. This prospect frightens the hell out of the middle classes and is something I have thought about since our "Vote Communist Campaigns" in 1976 and 1978 - Detroit.

There is no other path available.

The question deepens if you are the sorry bloke - with Red credentials, assigned or self assigned, to work in the electoral arena. Do you break your connection with the people who you are working with . . . by militantly opposing Kerry and advocating for Nader?

No . . . you better not.

The communists, militant leftists and progressives . . . in fact refuse . . . refuse . . . to break their connection with a mass of people involved in the electoral arena and we should understand this process.

Are they right?

They most certainly are not wrong.

Personally, I will vote for a dead man . . . an American tradition, before I vote for Bush Jr. or Kerry . . . meaning I will write in Lenin's name on the freaking ballot. And urge everyone I know to vote for Lenin or Abe Lincoln. But . . . I am not currently involved in the mechanics of this electoral work although I took part in it for the better part of a decade.

The social democratic left fronting as communists says . . . "Melvin P. don't understand class and the mechanics of the class struggle and reaction."

This is not true and in fact we ushered in the new political frameworks in which the current political struggle in America is evolving.

These are strange days . . . but we have been here before.

Michael Moore could probably get more voters than Nader.

You and I could run for president and vice president and probably get more votes than Nader without a nation wide electoral apparatus because the thinking of the diverse peoples of American is in flux.

Then some knucklehead would scream to the high heavens that you and I caused reaction to win.

You wrote about a year ago about the prospect of enlarging the coup that the Bush Jr. grouping carried out in 2000 . . . as the standard for operations in the electoral arena for 2004 . . . and I did not take this lightly. This is a real threat and your vision on this matter should be documented for the historical record.

Bottom line is that communist cannot support Kerry . . . and those comrades laboring in the electoral arena can carry out policy as they see fit . . . but must never raise their specific work to a level of strategy. Under no conditions can the connection with our diverse people be broken and this is going to be a complex task.

Pass out your communist propaganda and do not beat people over the head.

We have discussed what is taking place and the move in Florida that disfranchised thousands of African Americans has gone nation wide and is the prelude to disfranchising millions of Anglo-Americans . . . "whose names" are suspect. Even this is not enough for the Bush clique and the coup is in the wings waiting.

I endorsed the "anybody but Bush campaign" in 2003 and stated that this form of campaigning must be discarded in January 2004 and another political equation and consolidation be fought for. This is because I have personally been involved in elections as candidate and broad electoral politics.

An election is a living things with its own logic and law systems and the "party line" does not mean we do not fight out the day to day battle and the shifts . . . fissures . . . and divisions that always take place as a product of any election.

The coup you spoke of - damn near a year ago . . . is being fought for in front of our eyes.

I ainât scared and the game is played out at the highest level.

Melvin P.