[Peace-discuss] The source of our problems
C. G. Estabrook
galliher at illinois.edu
Sun Oct 17 14:45:20 CDT 2010
[Or, how not to be that terrible thing, a "single-issue voter." Tsk, tsk.]
/The source is "...the long right turn of the Democratic Party since the 1970s,
as financialization of the economy led to shedding New Deal commitments so as to
compete with the Republicans for corporate patronage."
/
And the cure is to make the single-issue large enough. ("Be as radical as
reality," said Lenin.)
Opposition to the war is the necessary if not sufficient first condition for a
serious politics. What is required is "a revitalization of the founding
tradition of civic virtue and republican values of liberty." And that's what
the teapartiers are calling for, even if they need to clarify their analysis.
"If they can get you asking the wrong questions, they don't need to worry about
answers."
Imperial war contradicts that revitalization. And avoiding the question of the
war disqualifies any further discussion.
It's important that the Democrats do that, while the teapartiers are conflicted
on the matter. Although the polity is far from democratic, a serious defeat for
the Democratic party and the concomitant rejection of their policies is the
probably necessary beginning of an insistence on different - and contrasting -
policies.
Although it's true that no one - outside of a few Greens - are clear on the matter.
There's work for people like us.
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