Reasons to be glad, in response to all posts on the election.
Note that these do not include, that the Repubs won the WH,
or that they retained control of Congress.
1. Public opinion in the country is not moving to the right. Nader plus
Gore beat Bush; even Gore alone beat Bush. The Senate closed up
dramatically, the House a little bit.
2. Buchanan is headed for oblivion. The populist mantle is firmly the
property of the non-Democratic Party left.
3. Nader rallies confirm the arrival of a new, multi-issue, progressive
youth movement.
4. Certainly the Nader turnout was disappointingly low. A (thin) silver
lining is the lack of matching funds frees Nader and the Greens from
interlopers. In this regard, incidentally, I think there was zero threat
from Buchanan and even less from Ventura, but more from Fulani.
5. The closeness of the results in Congress preclude *seriously* reactionary
legislation from passing. No doubt we will get some bad stuff. For
instance, the Estate and Gift Tax is a goner. Obviously, it would be better
if the Dems had taken over one of the chambers, but it's not as bad as
"republican sweep" implies. Remember we had Democratic sweep in 1992, and I
missed the ensuing liberal renaissance.
6. A semi-conscious left could put Bush on the hook for the drop in
employment that is possible over the next year, thanks to his tacit if not
explicit support for Fed policy of getting the economy back to "normal."
Not in a zillion years will Gore do this.
7. The electoral college map looks better today than last week. Having New
Mexico, Florida, and Nevada in play is a positive development. Losing his
home state, Clinton's home state, and West Virginia is on Gore, not Nader.
8. There could be a renaissance of domestic spending in the new
configuration, not unlike 1988-92 under Bush Senior.
9. Support for Gore was ramrodded by leaderships of unions and minority
groups, not their rank-and-file. Nader doesn't have to apologize to the
constituencies or to anyone else for championing their interests.
10. After her interview with Clinton (which aired this a.m. on WPFW), Amy
Goodman is now bullet-proof.
11. The DP only changes with competitive pressure. Pressure means threats
and damage. Now lo and behold we have some. How much is not as obvious as
comparing Gore's margin of defeat with Nader's total. If you rode a time
machine back to January and persuaded Ralph to take up sky-diving, the year
could have unfolded differently in other ways. I learned that in "Back to
the Future." In any case, the Dems can pretend there is no problem and lose
worse next time, or wise up. You're either serious about left ideas or not,
folks. We either think there's a working class, or we don't (including in
the South). We're either bourgeois liberals, or we're not. Free your mind,
your ass will follow.
12. I'm not sure what the next Supreme Court will do to minorities. I doubt
it will be anything good. I am sure that Clintonoid rhetoric and
compromises have given us: huge numbers of people criminalized for no more
than drug possession offenses; huge drops in the welfare caseload; an unfree
D.C. (neo-colonial municipal administration); an uncritical posture
vis-a-vis the administration of capital punishment; utter neglect of urban
policy; embrace of an economic doctrine -- NAIRU -- that writes black folks
out of the labor market. So at whom should minorities be angry?
Let the recriminations begin!!! Oh. I guess they have already.
max
