In response to Aklilu's urging to "own up," I will proudly TAKE CREDIT
for the decision to vote for the Nader/LaDuke ticket instead of Gore the
corporate whore. The political blunder is all the supposedly
well-meaning DFL hacks insisting on supporting rightwing candidates
calling themselves democrats. we had two bad choices on the republicrat
tickets - one who made no pretension about being the enemy and another
who sometimes pretended to be a friend. it is hard to figure out which
would be slightly worse in the long run. Tell the unprecendented number
of new people in prison during the Clinton/Gore administration - mostly
people of color - that it would have been more helpful to vote for Gore
(at least Bush is proposing $1 billion of budget cuts from the
Department of Justice - prison industrial complex money). Tell all the
Third World peoples working in sweatshops around the world at wages of
several cents per hour in environmentally and physically hazardous
conditions that it would have helped them to support a candidate that
was pro-WTO, NAFTA, IMF, etc. Tell the victims of U.S. militarism in
Iraq (and 600,000 children killed by U.S. military and economic
aggression) and Yugoslavia that it would be more helpful to have Gore.
How does the Clinton/Bore administration's support of DOMA and the
"don't ask, don't tell policy" help the GLBT community?
What is really pathetic is the continued insistence of Democrate hacks
on making Greens the scapegoat for the failure of their own pathetic
candidate who failed to consistently stand for anything and could hardly
find any differences with Bush in the debates. The Democrats laying
down while Bush stole the election and then appointed ultra-rightwingers
to the cabinet shows that they are nothing but a pseudo opposition
party. They are never going to put up a real fight to the Republican's
rightwing assaults because, in the final analysis, they both serve the
same corporate interests and therefore have too much in common to
provide any real opposition. Do we have any obligation to continue to
participate in this charade? NO!
How does this relate to local Minneapolis politics? A lot of us who
have no use for the national Democratic party (and might have voted
either for Nader out of hope or protest, or Gore out of mere fear),
still participate in the local DFL caucuses - and some also run for
office in the DFL, because the DFL is so far the only viable party in
town and there are a lot of real great grass roots activists in the
local DFL.
I personally plan to continue to attend local DFL caucuses until we can
build a viable replacement party, and McCarthyite fascist DFL hacks are
not going to stop me.
Jordan Kushner
Powderhorn
[EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
>
> The proclivity of the Nader-supporting democrats in the last election to
> rationalize their betrayal. Let's face it; we all see the benefit of a
> multiparty system. However, when accomplishments like the right of choice,
> the Civil Rights Act of 1964, and affirmative action are in dire straits, it
> is inexcusable for these wandering Democrats to attempt to justify their
> betrayal with non-secutors. A popular defense among such local Democrats is
> that Gore was not at risk of losing Minnesota. If memory serves me
> correctly, they are wrong; it seems to me that Gore and Lieberman visited MN
> not just once in the last two weeks, but twice. There's a reason for that.
>
> Face it, you made a political blunder. Own up to it, apologize to stalwart
> Democrats--especially to those most at risk now (women and minorities), and
> take steps not to compromise people for a wispy principle that will have far
> less effect than the choice you tossed to the wind. Until you do this, you
> can't move on to do the great work that you are envisioning and are capable
> of doing.
>
> Aklilu Dunlap
> Eighth Ward
>
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