Posted on 10/18/2010 9:52:32 PM PDT by AmericanInTokyo
They expected bold action on the economic crisis, but it didn't happen. The stimulus didn't go far enough. Ditto for health care legislation. The scale and pace of change has been too slow - too many people are out of work, out of affordable health care, and out of their homes.
Meanwhile, their riff goes, bloodletting continues in Afghanistan, corporations are sitting on nearly $2 trillion of idle money, profits are up, inequality is growing, and tax cuts for the wealthy are draining our treasury and driving up the national deficit.
There is truth here, but the question is: is it enough to stay home? I say no for three reasons.
To begin with the most obvious, the elections' impact on people's lives. Even though the size of the stimulus was inadequate and a public option was missing in the new health care law, both bills bring a measure of relief to millions of people. And as a friend of mine keeps reminding me, it may make only an inch of difference, but a lot of people live on that inch.
Which brings me to next month's congressional elections. If the Republicans regain control of the House of Representatives, that inch of difference (things like unemployment insurance extensions, food stamps, relief for local and state governments, modest jobs and infrastructure programs, readjustment of tax policy in favor of working people, funding for education, a real fight over military appropriations for Afghanistan) will probably vanish - along with hope for more far-reaching measures.
Furthermore, "austerity" will become the watchword, the pressures to weaken Social Security and Medicare will grow, and the economic pain for working people is likely to get much worse.
A second reason to vote is a little less obvious, but you don't have to know higher math to understand it: A Republican victory at the polls on Nov. 2 - defined as winning a majority of seats in the House - would be the opening act of a horror show, culminating in the Republican right reclaiming full dominance of Congress and the White House in 2012.
For the far right, electoral success in the current elections and then in 2012 is the eye of the needle through which it must past in order to radically transform the country to the advantage of the most reactionary section of monopoly capital and its allies, motley and dangerous as they are.
No one on their side is going to stay home on Election Day. A "no show" is a "no-no" for them. Everyone is expected to march to the polls and bring others with them.
You won't hear of any of them scaling down the importance of the elections. Their lens is wide-angled enough to see the big picture. The claim that the two parties of capitalism are indistinguishable is a fool's notion in their world. And they see this election and the one two years from now as a crossroads in American politics whose outcome will determine the kind of nation we will become.
Finally, a Republican victory this fall will not simply weaken the president and his party, but likely demoralize and take the wind out of the sails of the loose coalition that emerged in 2008 and after a post-election hiatus is finding its stride again, as evidenced by the Oct. 2 rally in the nation's capital.
To believe otherwise is naïve at best. Millions will feel that the promise of 2008 evaporated in the voting booths in 2010. They may not be entirely right about that, but that is how they will feel, and people act on the basis of their feelings. The mobilization of people in the post-election period will become more difficult.
Of course, some people are so deeply cynical that nothing could persuade them to vote.
Then there are a few others who will sit these elections out for ideological reasons. They argue that participation in the two-party system spreads illusions about the Democratic Party, delaying the formation of an anti-capitalist alternative.
In their view, the elections are simply a contest between two parties with no differences of any importance; thus, it makes little, if any, difference who wins - Bush or Gore, Bush or Kerry, McCain or Obama, candidates of the right or candidates of the center and left of center.
Any even temporary and tactical alliance with the Democratic Party - well, it's worse than the plague, to be avoided at all costs. Support for a Democratic candidate as a "lesser evil" is tantamount to craven political bankruptcy and opportunism.
What is to be done? It's simple, say the advocates of this point of view: make a "strategic break" with the two-party system. But there is an oh-so slight hitch that serious progressive and left-thinking people can't afford to overlook.
A "strategic break" makes sense only if millions of people and their organizations are ready to march out of the Democratic Party into a labor/people-based political party, but guess what? They aren't.
Yes, many people stay home on Election Day, but it is not an expression of political acumen nor is it the majority. The most active layers of working people organize others to vote and vote themselves.
While many of them express dissatisfaction with the Democratic Party, it hasn't risen to the point where they are ready to bolt it in any near term that I can envision."
They convict themselves.
So, Democratic National Committee, Vice President Biden and the Mass Media, who is the bigger ogre? The US Chamber of Commerce? Or the US Communist Party?
Does the US Democratic Party accept this support, or assail it?
This, IMHO, should be the counter to US Chamber of Commerce influence and activity on the Republican side. Each and every time.
These commie wannabes were so close to seeing their dream of a communist Amerika come true. Sorry komrades! There are still too many Americans living in this country. Maybe you could move to North Korea, Havana or your Marxist “perfessor’s” house until more of us die off.
Sometimes I sit back and give thanks to almighty God for who my enemies are.
I have consistently stated that the Obambie machine should ALWAYS be referred to as Marxist/Communist, and not the polite code terms Progressive, or liberal.
Many Americans, including some FReepers can not bring themselves to calling a spade a spade.
It is good to see Savage having always referred to Obamie as Marxist, and even Rush seems to be coming around to using the term.
It is crunch time.
When the Dems bring up "CHAMBER OF COMMERCE" throw this right back in their face.
Get OFF "Defensive" and go on "Offense" and force them to respond to this, and change the subject.
I suggest this in all debates from now on, House/Senate/Gov when and if Dems bring this up. (I even doubt the are going to bring it up that much because they are seeing what little mileage it is gaining for them. But this is always a good "ace in the back pocket" just in case.)
The Backlash Has Started - in Chicago. Obama's motorcade met up with an angry crowd!
Millions upon millions of Americans are fit to be tied...and will show up in DROVES and put an end to this idiocy.
Oh this is great!
Honestly, can you believe this year 2010!!??
I agree with you AIT, and good to ‘see’ you! Been awhile.
I bet they (Commies) pull the article, or get a call from the DNC to "cool it". They did that once, when we posted on FR that they endorsed Obama. But we archived it and their efforts to scrub the internet of it did not amount to a hill of Dennisons chili beans. I do suggest to some Freeper(s) there in the USA late at night, to archive this link to the Communist Party, even though I have put most of the text up. I doubt their People's World webmaster is up at this hour, unless in a pot smoking stupor somewhere in the East Bay unable to do anything about it at 1 in the morning US East Coast time.
When will the Democrats and Communists make it official and merge parties ? It’s not like there’s any difference between the two.
Just Communist is they way I look at them. They must be stamped out. All Communists must be exposed and rooted out of our government.
“...until more of us die off.”
True Americans, the call is out! REPRODUCE and raise your offspring to know and love the US Constitution!!! FREEDOM.
One of them was “The only good Commie is a dead Commie”.
The other was, “First registration, then confiscation”.
Communists believe in the second saying because it would prevent the first saying from ever being implemented.
Despite the fact that the erstwhile Soviet Union and the late People’s Republic have left behind the suicidal doctrines of Marx and embraced capitalism, the communists still seek to bring down the United States with their peculiar combination of nonsense, hate and envy.
And clearly, Obama is their man.
Our country's leaders' ranks are filled with them. Van Jones and that Maoist chick, were just for starters. So many others still there, in place and active. Red through and through. Marxist to the core.
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