<table cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" border="0" ><tr><td valign="top" style="font: inherit;">Omg, Ron, what a GREAT post-- it should be required reading for everyone everywhere. I can't believe that anyone reading it wouldn't be persuaded of its truth and act accordingly. THANKS for posting it!<div> --Jenifer<br><br>--- On <b>Mon, 10/18/10, Ron Szoke <i><r-szoke@illinois.edu></i></b> wrote:<br><blockquote style="border-left: 2px solid rgb(16, 16, 255); margin-left: 5px; padding-left: 5px;"><br>From: Ron Szoke <r-szoke@illinois.edu><br>Subject: [Peace-discuss] Punish the Democrats?<br>To: "Ron Szoke" <r-szoke@illinois.edu><br>Cc: "Peace-discuss" <peace-discuss@lists.chambana.net><br>Date: Monday, October 18, 2010, 4:50 PM<br><br><div class="plainMail"> <br><a href="http://www.consortiumnews.com/2010/101510.html" target="_blank">http://www.consortiumnews.com/2010/101510.html
</a><br> <br>The 'Teach-the-Dems-a-Lesson' Myth<br><br>By Robert Parry (A Special Report) <br>October 15, 2010<br><br>If my e-mail inbox is any indication, many American progressives plan <br>to use the Nov. 2 election as an opportunity to “teach the Democrats a <br>lesson” by either not voting or casting ballots for third parties, even if <br>this contributes to the expected Republican (and Tea Party) landslide.<br><br>The thinking seems to be that the loss of the congressional majorities <br>will punish the Democrats for accepting half-measures and compromises <br>on issues from health care and financial reform to job stimulus and war. <br>The Left’s hope apparently is that the chastened Democrats will then <br>shift toward more progressive positions and be more assertive.<br><br>However, modern American political history tells us that this strategy <br>never works. After the four key elections in which many progressives
<br>abandoned the governing Democrats – in 1968, 1980, 1994 and 2000 – <br>not only did Republicans take U.S. politics further to the right, but the <br>surviving Democrats tacked more to the center and grew more timid.<br><br>All four elections also were marred by GOP dirty tricks that drew little or <br>no reaction from either the governing Democrats or the progressives, <br>emboldening the slash-and-burn Republicans to operate in an ever <br>more audacious style.<br><br>Tragically, too, the Left’s sideline-sitting contributed to the unnecessary <br>deaths of millions of people in wars from Vietnam and Central America <br>to Iraq and Afghanistan. Arguably even worse, U.S. inaction on global <br>warming – a neglect surely to be continued if Republicans and Tea <br>Partiers are victorious in Election 2010 – may doom the future of a <br>livable planet.<br><br>In other words, the “teach-the-Dems-a-lesson” strategy not only <br>doesn’t
work, it’s extremely dangerous.<br><br>. . .<br><much more> <br><br> <br></div><br>-----Inline Attachment Follows-----<br><br><div class="plainMail">_______________________________________________<br>Peace-discuss mailing list<br><a ymailto="mailto:Peace-discuss@lists.chambana.net" href="/mc/compose?to=Peace-discuss@lists.chambana.net">Peace-discuss@lists.chambana.net</a><br><a href="http://lists.chambana.net/mailman/listinfo/peace-discuss" target="_blank">http://lists.chambana.net/mailman/listinfo/peace-discuss</a><br></div></blockquote></div></td></tr></table><br>