Re: Re: Re: Re: Perfecting the one-party system, and antidotes
At 01:48 PM 11/9/00 -0500, you wrote: > Oh, and don't forget Gore's pathetic pander >to the Cuban-Americans on Elian Gonzales. of course, the fact that I don't forget such things is one reason I voted for Nader. BTW, the media pundits trash the US public for not having memories, but if you do have a memory, you're lambasted as a "spoiler." (Of course, the US media aren't good at promoting memory.) Jim Devine [EMAIL PROTECTED] & http://bellarmine.lmu.edu/~jdevine
Re: Re: Re: Perfecting the one-party system, and antidotes
Oh, and don't forget Gore's pathetic pander to the Cuban-Americans on Elian Gonzales. Barkley Rosser -Original Message- From: Louis Proyect <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Date: Thursday, November 09, 2000 9:48 AM Subject: [PEN-L:4175] Re: Re: Perfecting the one-party system, and antidotes >Burford: >>So why did Bush win Florida by a whisker only after pledging support for >>25% of the medicines bill of seniors. > >Although the major media has focused on Nader's "spoiler" role and >confusing ballots in West Palm Beach, the real story seems to be black >disenfranchisement. The racists in both parties have worked to produce a >prison industrial system that truly reflects capitalism in the USA today >rather than slippery, disingenuous bullshit about a "Third Way". > >=== > >Harsh lessons How the drug war cost Al Gore African-American votes in Florida. > >- - - - - - - - - - - - >By Bruce Shapiro > >Nov. 9, 2000 | As I write, it is less than 24 hours after Vice President Al >Gore did something new in two centuries of presidential elections: He >un-conceded. > >Twelve hours have brought no clarity to the outcome. Gore remains >marginally ahead in the national popular vote. Gov. George W. Bush >maintains a lead of fewer than 1,750 votes in Florida, upon which rest the >outcome of the Electoral College. Hours ago, the Florida secretary of state >released the results of recounts in 19 of the state's 67 counties. The >result: Gore gains 238 votes; Bush 205. > >It is too soon -- perhaps days too soon -- to predict where this is going, >the final tally of votes reallocated from error or struck for fraud, the >overseas absentees. But it is not too soon to say that the electoral >gridlock of the last 24 hours is a clear prophecy of more tumult to come. > >A country that is supposed to be fat and prosperous and complacent suddenly >appears to be hunkering down for months of rancorous contention, regardless >of who wins the Florida recount. The Senate is now evenly divided, and >Republicans retained (but saw narrowed) their control of the House. Gore >and Bush electoral victories are so sharply apportioned between Democratic >coastal and industrial states and a Republican heartland that the charts >broadcast Tuesday night by every television screen resembled a Civil War >territorial map. > >Under such pressures, what are normally marginal notes to the political >process -- the Ralph Nader vote, the routine precinct-level voter fraud >surfacing in Florida -- suddenly take on outsized resonance. And the fate >of a single senator -- whether dying Strom Thurmond or already dead >Sen.-elect Mel Carnahan -- will fundamentally change the dynamic of >Washington. > >(Which is why there is undoubtedly a special place in Democratic hell >awaiting Joe Lieberman, who insisted on running for reelection to his >Connecticut Senate seat. On the campaign trail Lieberman sang "I did it my >way," but his real motto was "Looking out for No. 1." Should Gore win, >Lieberman's replacement gets named by a Republican governor -- and that >Republican replacement will bestow a Republican majority, shifting the >political calculus on everything from budgets to Supreme Court nominations.) > >How did Florida end up the epicenter of such an extraordinary political >earthquake? It's easy enough to point to "the Nader factor," which already >has liberals devouring each other alive in a feast of rage. > >But for the sake of their long-term prospects, Democrats might choose to >look in a more productive direction: Florida's extraordinarily high rate of >so-called "felony disenfranchisement" -- the lifelong barring of >ex-offenders from voting. More than one-third of Florida's adult >African-American males were legally prevented from participating in this >week's election because of past contact with the state's criminal justice >system. And one-third of the male members of an African-American community >is a total utterly central to Gore's success. > >The irony, of course, is that Gore has been a prime mover of harsh criminal >penalties for nonviolent drug offenders. So is his chief Florida patron and >vote-tally advisor, Attorney General Bob Butterworth, who was elected to >office in 1988 by promising that the Sunshine State could "build the way" >out of crime with harsher sentences and more prisons. > >Now Gore and Butterworth are fighting to maintain the narrowest of margins, >in which the votes of those ex-offenders and recovered drug abusers could >have been part of a plurality which would have made Nader's >low-single-digits returns dwindle into historic insignificance. > >Full story at: >http://www.salon.com/politics/feature/2000/11/09/nation/index.html > > >Louis Proyect >Marxism mailing list: http://www.marxmail.org > >
Re: Re: Perfecting the one-party system, and antidotes
Burford: >So why did Bush win Florida by a whisker only after pledging support for >25% of the medicines bill of seniors. Although the major media has focused on Nader's "spoiler" role and confusing ballots in West Palm Beach, the real story seems to be black disenfranchisement. The racists in both parties have worked to produce a prison industrial system that truly reflects capitalism in the USA today rather than slippery, disingenuous bullshit about a "Third Way". === Harsh lessons How the drug war cost Al Gore African-American votes in Florida. - - - - - - - - - - - - By Bruce Shapiro Nov. 9, 2000 | As I write, it is less than 24 hours after Vice President Al Gore did something new in two centuries of presidential elections: He un-conceded. Twelve hours have brought no clarity to the outcome. Gore remains marginally ahead in the national popular vote. Gov. George W. Bush maintains a lead of fewer than 1,750 votes in Florida, upon which rest the outcome of the Electoral College. Hours ago, the Florida secretary of state released the results of recounts in 19 of the state's 67 counties. The result: Gore gains 238 votes; Bush 205. It is too soon -- perhaps days too soon -- to predict where this is going, the final tally of votes reallocated from error or struck for fraud, the overseas absentees. But it is not too soon to say that the electoral gridlock of the last 24 hours is a clear prophecy of more tumult to come. A country that is supposed to be fat and prosperous and complacent suddenly appears to be hunkering down for months of rancorous contention, regardless of who wins the Florida recount. The Senate is now evenly divided, and Republicans retained (but saw narrowed) their control of the House. Gore and Bush electoral victories are so sharply apportioned between Democratic coastal and industrial states and a Republican heartland that the charts broadcast Tuesday night by every television screen resembled a Civil War territorial map. Under such pressures, what are normally marginal notes to the political process -- the Ralph Nader vote, the routine precinct-level voter fraud surfacing in Florida -- suddenly take on outsized resonance. And the fate of a single senator -- whether dying Strom Thurmond or already dead Sen.-elect Mel Carnahan -- will fundamentally change the dynamic of Washington. (Which is why there is undoubtedly a special place in Democratic hell awaiting Joe Lieberman, who insisted on running for reelection to his Connecticut Senate seat. On the campaign trail Lieberman sang "I did it my way," but his real motto was "Looking out for No. 1." Should Gore win, Lieberman's replacement gets named by a Republican governor -- and that Republican replacement will bestow a Republican majority, shifting the political calculus on everything from budgets to Supreme Court nominations.) How did Florida end up the epicenter of such an extraordinary political earthquake? It's easy enough to point to "the Nader factor," which already has liberals devouring each other alive in a feast of rage. But for the sake of their long-term prospects, Democrats might choose to look in a more productive direction: Florida's extraordinarily high rate of so-called "felony disenfranchisement" -- the lifelong barring of ex-offenders from voting. More than one-third of Florida's adult African-American males were legally prevented from participating in this week's election because of past contact with the state's criminal justice system. And one-third of the male members of an African-American community is a total utterly central to Gore's success. The irony, of course, is that Gore has been a prime mover of harsh criminal penalties for nonviolent drug offenders. So is his chief Florida patron and vote-tally advisor, Attorney General Bob Butterworth, who was elected to office in 1988 by promising that the Sunshine State could "build the way" out of crime with harsher sentences and more prisons. Now Gore and Butterworth are fighting to maintain the narrowest of margins, in which the votes of those ex-offenders and recovered drug abusers could have been part of a plurality which would have made Nader's low-single-digits returns dwindle into historic insignificance. Full story at: http://www.salon.com/politics/feature/2000/11/09/nation/index.html Louis Proyect Marxism mailing list: http://www.marxmail.org
Re: Re: Perfecting the one-party system, and antidotes
At 19:19 08/11/00 -0500, Proyect wrote: >Burford: > >Bush has ditched Gingrich style confrontation, shifted to a Third Way type > >of middle position, called "compassionate conservativism", and is quite > >capable of working with Democrats temperamentally. > >http://www.guardianunlimited.co.uk/US_election_race/Story/0,2763,393863,00.h >tml The Guardian appears already to have pulled this page. While Bush will no doubt take some local curiosities with him to Washington, I am surprised that the owner of The marxism list reproduces an argument for the increased influence of a man who was admired by Gingrich. No doubt there are still the social roots that nourished Gingrich's politics, but Bush sounds most unlikely to make himself the ideological prisoner of someone like Olansky. That is quite different from taking advantage of a catch phrase title redefining the spin on "Conservatism". Besides the idea of criticising the sixties and placing more emphasis on personal responsibility is quite consistent with Bush having moved in to occupy the Third Way, political niche. >All this explains a lot about what has been going on over the past five >years in Texas, where social services and government health care have been >under intense pressure, even as Governor Bush was informing the rest of the >world of his heartfelt compassion. So why did Bush win Florida by a whisker only after pledging support for 25% of the medicines bill of seniors. What Proyect lacks in selecting and reproducing this amusing article at this point is a materialist perspective on the relationship between the realm of ideas in the superstructure, and the economic base. The reason why both Bush and Gore campaigned on substantial social support for health care of the elderly is that this is by no means opposed to the interests of the aggressively expanding sector of health capital. It could suit the pharmaceutical companies very well to have government backing for an ever expanding demand for medicines for the crumbling elderly. Their only intervention during the campaign was to make noises about whether the details of the arrangements might "unfairly" trim their profit markins. This is capital on the rise. It is quite different from gun-capital and tobacco capital even though the latter may be more partisan in the two party system. A social support system that relies on soup kitchens, even if temporarily useful to right wing politicians, is a throw back to a society when the USA was in a phase of rising capitalism, not of highly developed, technologically-based, monopoly finance capital. Chris Burford London
Re: Re: Perfecting the one-party system, and antidotes
didn't Arianna Huffington used to talk about "compassionate conservatism" (before she turned aristocratic populist)? At 07:19 PM 11/08/2000 -0500, you wrote: >Bush's favourite slogan "compassionate conservatism" is no empty jingle - >it is actually borrowed from a body of work by a pair of obscure >conservative gurus, whose influence would surely grow exponentially if the >Republicans recapture the White House. One is Myron Magnet, a cultural hawk >from the right-wing Manhattan Institute. His rival for George W's heart and >soul is a Marxist turned born-again Christian from Texas, Marvin Olasky, >who believes the whole machinery of state-provided social welfare should be >scrapped in favour of a return to 19th-century-style religious charities >and soup kitchens. Jim Devine [EMAIL PROTECTED] & http://bellarmine.lmu.edu/~JDevine
Re: Re: Perfecting the one-party system, and antidotes
> >Myron Magnet is cut from similar cloth as Olasky. The conservative prophet >sports big Dickensian bushy whiskers (apparently inspired by a stay at >Cambridge University), and a Victorian philosophy to match. As a Cantabridgean (Kings '82), I take exception to this characterization. Oxford is the reactionary place. Cambs is the home of all the Cambridge Commies, remember? When I got there in '80, the secretary at the college apologized for the confusion: they were recovering from another student occupation. Within a week or so of my arrival, I was part of a large demo, including many distinguished dons like Raymond Williams, against the Chilean ambassador. And the Cambs style runs to clean-shaven, in emulation of Wittgenstein, himself a compsym who thanks Sraffa, the neo-Ricardan Stalinist and friend of Gramsci, in his acknowledgement to the Phil Investigations. Cambs is a locus for the revolt of the priviliged! --jks _ Get Your Private, Free E-mail from MSN Hotmail at http://www.hotmail.com. Share information about yourself, create your own public profile at http://profiles.msn.com.
