On Thu, 02 May 2002 21:08:06 -0700, Sabri Oncu wrote:
>Louis,
>
>>Why should French socialists not work on
>>building the ranks of the left while sharpening
>>its understanding of class principles and vote
>>for Chirac at the same time to ensure that Le
>>Pen is stopped this time? If they vote Chirac on
>>May 5 does it mean that they support Chirac? Not
>>that if they abstain they will make much
>>difference but why take chances?
>Socialists must promote socialism. To advocate a vote for a bourgeois
>party makes a mockery of socialist principles.
Two questions:
1) How does one use one's vote to "promote socialism" in a two-candidate
race between a conservative and a fascist?
2) Given (1), how is the decision to vote Chirac incompatible with the
promotion of socialism?
It is not as if the French socialists are actually supporting Chirac, or
making common cause; they continue to promote their own party as being a
better choice for the parliamentary elections and as Chris Burford pointed
out, "Vote for the crook, not the fascist" is hardly a ringing endorsement.
It seems to me that the current French election is a reductio ad absurdum of
the proposition that to advocate a vote for a bourgeois party is always and
everywhere a mockery of socialist principles.
dd
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