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<DIV>Yes, I believe that both Henwood and Engles have it right. Most
elections - especially in the US - are ritualized political "genuflecting" that
has little meaning and significance other than reinforcing the political myth
that the masses are participating, legitimating, and involved in the policy
decision-making by virtue of the act of selecting from among the circulating
elites a group of elites that they can call their representatives and complain
about after the election because they really never did represent those who
elected them but rather some established interest who probably fuels and directs
the electoral process by supplying financial resources and the like but
does not actually engage in the voting per se. This election brings to
mind two tunes. One is "<STRONG>Razzle Dazzle</STRONG>" from the show
<EM>Chicago</EM> (<A
href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rn5-VN3SH1o">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rn5-VN3SH1o</A>);
the other is Tom Lehrer's "<STRONG>Vatican Rag</STRONG>" (Marty Feldman’s intro
and version - <A title=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GQ0bqZw6B0A
href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GQ0bqZw6B0A">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GQ0bqZw6B0A</A>).
Of course, there are probably a number of songs by Tom Lehrer and others that
characterize American Politics; but these have come readily to mind prior to
reading your post and after reading the post stand out as appropriate.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>-----Original Message----- </DIV>
<DIV>From: C. G. Estabrook </DIV>
<DIV>Sent: Wednesday, November 03, 2010 10:48 AM </DIV>
<DIV>To: Peace-discuss </DIV>
<DIV>Subject: [Peace-discuss] News from Doug Henwood </DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>The meaning of the election</DIV>
<DIV>Posted: 03 Nov 2010 06:47 AM PDT</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>You heard it here first (well maybe it was somewhere else, but I missed
it):</DIV>
<DIV>yesterday’s “historic wave” was of the same lasting significance as
the</DIV>
<DIV>“historic wave” of 2008—none. Or, more exactly, it’s another instance of
the</DIV>
<DIV>eternal recurrence of American politics, another iteration of the status
quo. A</DIV>
<DIV>country that’s rotting from the head, poisoned by alienation, plutocracy,
and an</DIV>
<DIV>aversion to thinking, careens from one idiocy to another, with the winning
side</DIV>
<DIV>celebrating its momentary triumph, and then it all goes sour in a few
months.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>Engels nailed it [from a letter of 1892, when Engels was 71]:</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV> There is no place yet in America for a third
party, I believe. The</DIV>
<DIV> divergence of interests even in the same class
group is so great in that</DIV>
<DIV> tremendous area that wholly different groups and
interests are represented</DIV>
<DIV> in each of the two big parties, depending on the
locality, and almost each</DIV>
<DIV> particular section of the possessing class has its
representatives in each</DIV>
<DIV> of the two parties to a very large degree, though
today big industry forms</DIV>
<DIV> the core of the Republicans on the whole, just as
the big landowners of the</DIV>
<DIV> South form that of the Democrats. The apparent
haphazardness of this</DIV>
<DIV> jumbling together is what provides the splendid
soil for the corruption and</DIV>
<DIV> the plundering of the government that flourish
there so beautifully….</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV> The small farmer and the petty bourgeois will
hardly ever succeed in forming</DIV>
<DIV> a strong party; they consist of elements that
change too rapidly — the</DIV>
<DIV> farmer is often a migratory farmer, farming two,
three, and four farms in</DIV>
<DIV> succession in different states and territories,
immigration and bankruptcy</DIV>
<DIV> promote the change in personnel, and economic
dependence upon the creditor</DIV>
<DIV> also hampers independence — but to make up for it
they are a splendid</DIV>
<DIV> element for politicians, who speculate on their
discontent in order to sell</DIV>
<DIV> them out to one of the big parties
afterward.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV> The tenacity of the Yankees, who are even
rehashing the Greenback humbug, is</DIV>
<DIV> a result of their theoretical backwardness and
their Anglo-Saxon contempt</DIV>
<DIV> for all theory. They are punished for this by a
superstitious belief in</DIV>
<DIV> every philosophical and economic absurdity, by
religious sectarianism, and</DIV>
<DIV> by idiotic economic experiments, out of which,
however, certain bourgeois</DIV>
<DIV> cliques profit.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV><http://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1892/letters/92_01_06.htm>
long ago:</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
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