[Peace-discuss] Will I.P. elect McCain?

[Robert Naiman]

Now it seems like you're saying that actually, support of affirmative
action *is* "the Left" position, but it shouldn't be. Just clarifying.
So I didn't miss the meeting.

On Sat, Aug 2, 2008 at 7:11 AM, C. G. Estabrook <galliher at uiuc.edu> wrote:
> Affirmative action is at best a stop-gap that risks substituting the pursuit
> of diversity for the pursuit of equality. In the last generation the
> American left, such as it is, has been bought off by tokenism to give up its
> critique of class.
>
> People of color managing state capitalism is a rather limited victory for
> the Left in the US -- especially when the price has been the Left's
> diminuendo of the critique of capitalism as it was a generation (or a
> century) ago.  The Left is much further Right than it was then -- and it was
> done not with a meeting but in rather embarrassed silence.
>
>
> Robert Naiman wrote:
>>
>> When was the meeting where it was decided that "the Left" doesn't
>> support affirmative action? Was there a meeting notice? I must have
>> missed it.
>>
>> On Sat, Aug 2, 2008 at 5:56 AM, C. G. Estabrook <galliher at uiuc.edu> wrote:
>>>
>>> "Affirmative action" is at best a stop-gap that risks substituting the
>>> pursuit of diversity for the pursuit of equality.  The latter is the Left
>>> position. --CGE
>>>
>>> Jenifer Cartwright wrote:
>>>>
>>>> The fact that a ban on affirmative action has never lost makes me
>>>> question
>>>> the stats that say the electorate is to the left of the government.
>>>> Terrible
>>>> news, terrible for all of us if the prediction holds true.
>>>>  --Jenifer
>>>>
>>>> --- On *Fri, 8/1/08, C. G. Estabrook /<galliher at uiuc.edu>/* wrote:
>>>>
>>>>   From: C. G. Estabrook <galliher at uiuc.edu>
>>>>   Subject: [Peace-discuss] Will I.P. elect McCain?
>>>>   To: "peace-discuss" <peace-discuss at anti-war.net>
>>>>   Date: Friday, August 1, 2008, 7:43 PM
>>>>
>>>>   "On Sunday, McCain came out in favor of an Arizona civil rights
>>>> initiative
>>>>   that    would outlaw any state discrimination either for or against
>>>> folks, based on    race, gender or national origin. Obama said he was
>>>> 'disappointed' with
>>>>   McCain    and told UNITY he favors affirmative action 'when properly
>>>> structured.'
>>>>
>>>>   "The Arizona referendum banning preferential treatment based on race
>>>> is
>>>>   also on    the ballot in the swing state of Colorado. It won in
>>>> California in 1996, in    Washington in 2000 and in Michigan in the
>>>> great
>>>> Democratic sweep of 2006. It
>>>>   has    never lost, and may just win McCain Colorado, and with it the
>>>> nation."
>>>>
>>>>   There would be a certain paradox in McCain's becoming president as a
>>>> result
>>>>   of    identity politics -- which begins with the notion that the
>>>> categories of
>>>>   gender,    race and class are fixed.
>>>>
>>>>   Self-described progressives in the last generation have replaced
>>>> campaigns    against economic inequality with campaigns against
>>>> discrimination within    economic groups -- as inequality increased.
>>>>  Thus
>>>> it was considered a victory
>>>>   to    get women into West Point or people of color onto the board of
>>>> General Electric
>>>>
>>>>   (instead of abolishing those institutions).
>>>>
>>>>   The old Left goals were quietly abandoned with the onslaught of
>>>> Neoliberalism,    thirty years ago.  Redistribution was shelved in favor
>>>> of
>>>>   "recognition." (It's    true that a few, like M.L. King, went the
>>>> other
>>>> way, but they were marginalized
>>>>
>>>>   -- with prejudice, in his case.)
>>>>
>>>>   Some people noticed what was going on: see, e.g., Walter Benn
>>>> Michaels'
>>>>   "The    Trouble with Diversity: How We Learned to Love Identity and
>>>> Ignore
>>>>   Inequality"    (2006).  But a President McCain would be a rather large
>>>> chicken come home to    roost.  --CGE
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
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>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
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>>>>
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>>
>>
>>
>



-- 
Robert Naiman
Just Foreign Policy
www.justforeignpolicy.org
naiman at justforeignpolicy.org

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