A few thoughts here on the campaigns of West and Stein. 1. We need a real, militant independent party, not just one-shot protest votes. It might make people feel better to "speak truth to power," but the real question is seizing power. That means organizing, an engaged mass membership, a leadership reflective of that membership, etc. The Greens have repeatedly chosen not to do this. I had hopes the West campaign might be working on something that will actually last behind the election, but I've never gotten an answer to my questions about this from the campaign, and can only conclude that they, like the Greens, are living in a fantasy world where protest votes can somehow influence the Democratic Party to be less god awful.
Turning the Democrats into the kind of party working people need is less likely than the idea of levitating the Pentagon back in the day. 2. Related to this is the fact that they are running separate campaigns. Part of the moralizing nonsense of that protest vote "speaking truth to power" crap is the idea that it means something to run your own, separate "principled" campaign. It's not distinct to the West and Stein campaigns, of course. There are half a dozen, if not more, socialist campaigns. What these things are actually saying by doing that is that building a movement party is less important than recruiting people to my sect. We have a number of options of candidates opposed to the duopoly with politics that can be supported in principle. Rally behind the one with the biggest numbers and we have the best chance of kicking the most serious hole in this rust bucket of the corporate political system. I don't even want to hear why the Greens are mad at West or why West couldn't go with the Greens. It's all bullshit. Get serious and pull together or step aside. 3. We all share their opposition to and suspicions of U.S. imperialism, but there are others, competitors. The failure of West and Stein to distance themselves from the war Putin and Russia are waging on Ukraine is disturbing. Setting aside the question of U.S. responses to it (which are always going to be opportunistic and self-serving), the right of self-determination is basic, whether in Ukraine or Gaza. This would be a definitive consideration against both, if there were any chance of their actually implementing a foreign policy. Finally--and, admittedly, on a gut level--every time I am about to say, "Okay, I'll vote for Stein again," I can't help but see that picture of her at that table in Moscow sitting as Putin's guest alongside that Christo-fascist sociopath General Michael Flynn. I don't begin to understand what she and/or her advisors was thinking, and the campaign never responded to my queries about it. Thanks for reading this regrettably longish post. -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Groups.io Links: You receive all messages sent to this group. View/Reply Online (#31083): https://groups.io/g/marxmail/message/31083 Mute This Topic: https://groups.io/mt/107144290/21656 -=-=- POSTING RULES & NOTES #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived. #3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern. #4 Do not exceed five posts a day. -=-=- Group Owner: [email protected] Unsubscribe: https://groups.io/g/marxmail/leave/8674936/21656/1316126222/xyzzy [[email protected]] -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
