[Peace-discuss] [sf-core] Election Day

[Brussel, Morton K]

The usual wise commentary.

See also  the debate between Ellsberg and Swanson:

http://warisacrime.org/content/audio-daniel-ellsberg-and-david-swanson-debate-voting-obama

Click on MP3

--mkb



On Nov 5, 2012, at 12:42 PM, Ricky Baldwin wrote:



So Election Day is tomorrow, although many people have already voted.  There has already been a lot of traffic over this event, probably too much, but I thought since I'm home sick I'd share a couple of thoughts on it before it's over.  Overall I'd say whoever wins, we lose, but that's only the superficial story.  It only takes 5 minutes to vote (if you aren't turned away), it's free (for the moment), and it doesn't necessarily take away from the other, more important work we do (unless we let it).

First of all, the Presidential election is the most talked about and the least important vote.  Because of our electoral college system, most voters can have little impact on the outcome.  That's not even considering the primary system, which filters out most of our options well before most of us even get to vote in that, by a double whammy of staggered primaries that cause candidates to drop out before the primary season is even over and money - big money; money in the millions; money that comes from, well, money; money most of us don't have to splurge on candidates who we know from experience mostly talk out of both sides of their neck.  Of course even this multiple filtration system is an improvement over the first process set up by our exalted Founding Fathers, who didn't trust rabble like us to vote at all; they had the Senate pick the President, and the Senate chosen by State Legislatures, who were in turn elected by white men over 21 with property.  Later on, of course, after some famous few years of violence and many long years of nonviolent (on one side) struggles, the right to vote was extended and had to be curtailed in other ways - literacy tests, poll taxes, etc., bans on felons and ex-felons voting, and now ID requirements, and the fight goes on.  Many people were beaten or killed to remove some of these barriers, and then as new ones were thrown up, to remove the new ones, perhaps ad infinitum.  Motor Voter was a big one a couple decades ago, and Early Voting nowadays.  The Democrats and Republicans meanwhile conspired cynically to exclude so-called "third party" candidates, but more importantly to control the format and the subject matter, in the national debates now run by a private company.  Make no mistake this is part of "voter demobilization" - as is the overall trend in campaigns, which is that the concerns of us rabble do not meaningfully enter into the debate (see Piven and Cloward "Why Americans Still Don't Vote").

This is not to say that other barriers are not important, and thus local candidates like Charlie Smyth.

Some have argued that if voting were not worth the trouble The Powers That Be wouldn't try so hard to stop us.  It could also be argued that these powers have other means, and that there is strategic value for power in divide-and-conquer, some demobilizing and others mobilizing the vote, and that cooptation is a favorite tactic of power.  All true.  Historically it seems we rabble get a better shake from our own grassroots movements than from elections - but these movements also have more impact when voters are eligible, register and mobilize.  So voting has value in supporting the objectives of grassroots movements.  Organizing these movements is where our energies are best focused.  Voting is secondary, but it can help.  Especially in the more local elections where our votes count more.

That does not mean we shouldn't vote for president.  But we should labor under no illusions that our vote is decisive in that election, especially here in a "Safe State."  Personally I think in such a state as Illinois we should vote Green, to make a statement, but in a swing state that type of symbolic statement making is dangerous.  There the presidential election means something, but what?  The contrast is certainly not stark, between left and right, capital or labor.  But it is not true to say there is no difference at all.

On war we have a choice between two candidates who very nearly tripped over each other agreeing in the third debate, both of whom accuse Iran of violating international accords that the country in fact follows, inspectors and all - of course that availed Iraq little - while the most flagrant violator in the region, Israel, is supported by both.  In fact the candidates agree on everything from drones to extraordinary rendition, although Obama may be a bit softer on  torture methods and Romney a bit more reckless and stupid.  Obama talks about a peace dividend, or social reinvestment of military expenditures, which he is unfairly criticized for by pundits - not because we've heard it all before, or because his record says he is most likely not serious - but because the war money is mostly borrowed, so simply redirecting it would somehow, hocus pocus, increase the deficit (a phony concern anyway, but hypocritical as a debate point if they are willing to support deficit spending for killing but not for living).  In all, I think foreign policy is little reason to distinguish the two, or Democrats and Republicans generally although there will be exceptions and many in either party will see the big-ticket items like cutting war funding as lost causes or safe votes and choose accordingly to appease local voters.  Here's one good reason to vote Green in the presidential election if you're in a safe state.

On the economy, we have a choice between one candidate who would redouble the powerful efforts to drain the working classes of rights and living while enriching the rich even more, speeding down the road that led us to the Great Recession of 2007-12, and another who championed an economic stimulus that was far too little, too late, and too cautiously targeted away from those who needed it most.  It was something, and it was necessary, but it was not nearly enough, not even half enough - and it was also not the destructive opposite path championed by Romney.  What we need is massive deficit spending and social investment in education, social services and other 'alternatives to incarceration' not to mention job creation (WPA, CCC, a bit updated).  Neither will give us that.  Obama backed off the Employee Free Choice Act, which Romney never would have touched with a ten-foot pole.  Obama signed the Lily Ledbetter Act, which may seem small, but it makes Romney dodge the question.  Obama champions disaster relief as the proper role of government, although his Administration doesn't seem to see the disaster that is all around us (not to mention ongoing from Katrina); and FEMA may be inept much of the time, but Romney would eliminate it in favor of charities (which are already overtaxed just picking up the slack from limited federal agencies like FEMA and other relief efforts).  And so on.  The Greens struggle to raise serious answers, which of course never entered the tightly controlled debates.  But even the Greens have some problems understanding the realities of poverty and the working world today, which is heavily (unfortunately) reliant on fossil fuels at the moment - heavily entrenched interests that need to be attacked, but cannot be swept away easily ("by 2025") without much planning and organization to ensure that the human cost doesn't make the changes, well, inhumane.  The Greens have improved, however, by dropping the old line about a gasoline tax.

In state and local races, of course, every area is different.  Republican and Democrat parties both seem to be pretty big tents.  In Illinois Democrats like Quinn, Madigan, and Rahm Emmanuel in Chicago are the ones hammering the working classes at the moment.  Unfortunately none of them are running this year except Madigan, who is out of our reach here.  I think Frerichs is good almost all of the time and is definitely better than Bambenek, who is really pretty rightwing on the economy.

Back to the feds, Obamacare is not what we wanted or what we need (single payer), and it has many problems and leaves out many people, may even actively harm some now that the much-debated Public Option got gutted, but it also fixes many problems like the donut hole for Medicare, denials for pre-existing conditions, and so on.  Romney is so lost on this one he frequently claims his plan will cover things his aides have to rush up to the mike to say it doesn't, and he seems to actually not know when he says that decisions about care should be made between a patient an a doctor (and not some government bureaucrats) that this is exactly what is not happening now: decisions are made by insurance companies with dollar signs in their eyes.  The Greens are better, of course, and some Democrats like David Gill join them in supporting Medicare-for-all.

Romney and Obama differ most probably on women's rights, abortion and access to contraception.  Neither is likely to have much to do with big-ticket items like Roe v. Wade, but to the extent that either has an impact - through ACA coverage of contraception even if your employer is somewhat Cro-Magnon - Obama is certainly better.  Jill Stein will of course best him in this test by supporting Medicare-for-all.  Romney and Obama are about as bad as each other in other areas of civil or human rights, from WikiLeaks to torture, but Obama and the Democrats are generally softer on the bad stuff.  Romney's legal adviser is Robert Bork, so what does that tell you?

Well, that's a lot.  There's more to say, but once again there is only so much discussion of these elections in the current system that is worth the trouble.  We should vote.  Not voting with the idea that we become somehow complicit in the system by voting is like refusing to work for "The Man" and living off the charity and taxes of those who do.  It accomplishes nothing in itself.  Symbolic voting can be the same if it throws elections to the worst candidates.  But context is everything, and the most important thing we can do is the work of grassroots resistance, and then voting in that context may help, and even spoiler votes can be useful in the context of a sufficiently organized movement.  The movements we need are not there yet in many ways.  Our job is to build them.  And do what we can along the way.

My 2c.
Ricky

"Speak your mind even if your voice shakes." - Maggie Kuhn

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