Rob, you are absolutely right. American lefties are further from
our mainstream than lefties in Australia, Ireland, or Britain. This
makes it all the worse when Ted Grant tendencies or DSA types come
floating our way trying to apply their understandings to what is
admittedly a bad situation.
The practical effect is to reinforce the direction of our own worst
leftie types, who are sitting usually in their safe havens of San
Francisco or New York, Boston or Chicago. What exists in the US is
a vast outback containing 90-100,000,000 people+, where these lefties
never go and never engage.
These southern regions are where capital fled post 1950s to avoid having
to listen to the sterile leftism of these types. And this region has
been producing its own "intellectuals" ever since.....people like Wiliam
Buckley (family from Misssissippi), H. Ross Perot (Dallas), the Bush
family (West Texas and Houston), and Clinton/ Gore/ Carter etc.
Since the US Left has zero Left presence here (except for the Catholic
Church), they are poorly equipted to deal with reality, and turn to
apparently more successful elements from other continents! This
just confuses things more.
An example in point, my favorite list (as Rob knows) is currently
discussing whether Liberation Theology still exists! Many on this
list seem to think that LT has almost totally evaporated off the face of
the planet. If they were living in Texas as I do, they would quickly
see that the only liberal/ Left activity in a town or city comes out of
the Catholic Church.
So while others are enmeshed in Kosovo or East Timor, the practical
question down this way, is how to build a movement where the largest
component of activists are nuns?! What's even worse, these nuns and
priests are the most active people working nationally for building an
antiwar movement in the US, or ending the death penalty!
Thanks again, Rob, for inviting me to participate in Thaxis. But
what an unfortunate name this is, to attract more plebian types to talk.
It sounds like some sort of disease.
Tony Abdo
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