[Peace-discuss] Fwd: Now Obama's in, is anti-war anti-racism activism out?

Sun Nov 9 05:40:10 CST 2008

Neil,
There's lots to say about both Bush and McCain that isn't all that obvious and that barely gets mentioned on peace-discuss -- they (unlike Obama) have pretty much gotten a pass on peace-discuss (more so here than in the MSM). 

Re quoting what another person has said: There's a huge difference between an actual quote or honest paraphrase and a paraphrase designed to make the other person look a bad as possible, e g stating that a person who is pro-choice has said that she believes in killing babies (and then referring to her thereafter as The godless baby-killing alderwoman, etc). A parallel to that would be writing that Obama is on record as wanting to finish the job in Afghanistan, vs writing that Obama is on record as saying he wants to kill more Afghans, etc.

Bottom line: I'm sure we all see the difference betw the kind of criticism that comes from Zinn/Chomsky/Klein and the kind of criticism that comes from Limbaugh/O'Reilly/Coulter. The question is, do we in AWARE want to foster the former and discourage the latter?? I hope the answer is yes.  (And btw, I intend for this to be my last email on the subject!) 

Re the "victory" quote:
Like you, Neil, I don't know who said, "Obama's win was a victory against racism but not a victory for the left," but I'd bet my life that it was a lefty white guy who is deep-down clueless about how racist this country is. Also, racism and politics/economics are inseparable, the former being largely a by-product of the latter, imho. And tho' I'd never use the word "victory," I hope we will see some lessening of racism, from both the fact of Obama's presidency AND as a result of movement to the left during- and because of Obama's presidency. How much or how permanent is another matter -- it's an uphill battle, and we definitely have our work cut out for us.
 --Jenifer 

--- On Sat, 11/8/08, Neil Parthun <lennybrucefan at gmail.com> wrote:

From: Neil Parthun <lennybrucefan at gmail.com>
Subject: Re: [Peace-discuss] Fwd: Now Obama's in, is anti-war anti-racism activism out?
To: jencart13 at yahoo.com
Cc: "Morton K. Brussel" <brussel at illinois.edu>, "Peace-discuss" <peace-discuss at anti-war.net>, "C. G. Estabrook" <galliher at uiuc.edu>
Date: Saturday, November 8, 2008, 7:49 PM

Jenifer and others --

I think that there was not so much discussion of McCain because, at least I'm going to guess here, we all were well aware of his pro-war, pro-occupation views which were antithetical to our described ethic as anti-war activists.  It would have been like sending out emails like "Grass is green", "Humans breathe oxygen" and "We are using the AWARE Peace Discuss list".  It would be facts that everybody already was well aware of and would be, to paraphrase Bob's words (but not intent) a true waste of everybody's time. 

While some may have had a "vendetta", I was interested and am interested in holding any President -- right wing or "left wing" to a socially just set of enacted policies.  I was interested in exposing the possibilities that Obama may have played anti-war activists for votes and may very well have no intention of ending wars, but would rather expand the war(s).  Given some of his statements in Germany, to AIPAC, et al., I would easily describe that there was (and most certainly is) cause for concern.

Similarly, how was it smear tactics to quote Obama's words and then say that he might enact such policy?  Hell, Michael Moore said that he hoped Obama would break his campaign promises because his promises scared/disappointed him.  But I digress...

Now that we have a President Obama, we must hold him to socially just policies and put forth the public pressure to ensure that he and the almost filibuster proof Democratic Congress take actions that will assist the working class and the peace movement.

As one commentator said on Friday's Democracy Now (can't remember the name off the top of my head) "Obama's win was a victory against racism but not a victory for the left."

We must enact the public pressure to ensure that Obama has no choice but to enact socially just policies -- much like the public pressure that forced FDR to enact some social works programs that became the New Deal.  We must not fall into the trap of being on the defense against right wing attacks and becoming apologists for continued war, imperialism and the ruling class riding the working class like a cheap, beaten mule (h/t to HST) in the name of what is "politically viable" and "pragmatic".

Smile and keep fighting,

     Neil

 We absolutely have to refuse to attribute any kind of permanency to that which is simply because it is.
[angela v. davis, 1944-]

Finish each day and be done with it. You have done what you could. Some blunders and absurdities have crept in; forget them as soon as you can. Tomorrow is a new day. You shall begin it serenely and with too high a spirit to be encumbered with your old nonsense.
[ralph waldo emerson, 1803-1882]

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