Marvin Gandall wrote: > > Carrol Cox wrote: "I still think that it is really not possible to both > support Kerry and continue to build the anti-war movement. It is essential > that we keep front and center that Kerry will be a more dangerous imperial > warrior than Bush." > ----------------------------------------------------------------------- > Isn't this like saying a Republican victory in 1936 would have been > preferable to the relection of FDR and the Democrats because the latter, by > promoting social reform and collective bargaining rights, had a more > sophisticated understanding of how to save capitalism? Or the same as the > German KPD worrying that a "more dangerous" social democratic victory would > postpone the German revolution, which Nazi repression would hasten?
Those two elections were very different. Neither Landon nor Bush bears comparison to Hitler. I am coming to object rather violently to the comparison. The 1932 situation in Germany (in hindsight, and presumably to many at the time) fulfilled the conditions classically named in the Declaration of Independence -- political changes which threatened to be irrevocable. No such situation exists now, nor did it exist in 1936. The decision of the CPUSA to support Roosevelt, in fact, was as disastrous as the failure of the KPD to oppose Hitler. Seventy years later, as the flourishing of ABBs shows, leftists in this country are still cursed by the disaster of '36, which served to tie "the left" in the u.s. permanently to the DP. Until that link is broken "The U.S. Left" should never be mentioned without scare quotes. (And incidentally, it is not at all self-evident that Landon would have been all that much more conservative than FDR, whose main accomplishment during his second term was quietly to destroy the most radical 'achievement' of the New Deal, the WPA.) The ABB case stands or falls on the assumption that Bush represents not just ordinary evil but a qualitatively distinct element in u.s. politics, threatening irreversible damage. That is nonsense. Any other argument for supporting Kerry will apply as well to all future elections. I think a failure of nerve has occurred. For defense of Social Security and Medicare, as well as a pullout from Iraq, I would prefer to proceed on Mao's slogan of "Trust the People." In July of 2002 Doug posted on LBO: ******* New Dealers Redux? Thu, 25 Jul 2002 11:29:54 Archer.Todd wrote: What do you think about Kuttner's analysis of the '29 Crash? Doug? Michael? Brad? http://www.tompaine.com/feature.cfm/ID/6057 Kuttner overlooks one political inspiration for the New Deal - fear of communism. With no domestic CP and no USSR to worry about, there's a lot less pressure for New Deal-style reforms.- Doug ****** Our business is to rebuild a movement which will will recreate that fear (whether of communism or a left movement under some other name). We simply cannot do our proper work while possessed by the panic which fuels ABB. Carrol
