Robert Naiman wrote:
Let's try a thought experiment...
Let's suppose, for the sake of discussion, that Michael Moore would
agree to run as a Democratic candidate for President in 2012.
Let's suppose that he agreed to run the kind of campaign that Jesse
Jackson ran to a significant degree in 1984 and 1988, especially the
former: where the campaign isn't focused on "vote for me, I'm great,"
but is mainly about trying to put forward the political struggles of
the constituencies that are at the base of the Democratic party,
grassroots labor especially; like the sequence in Michael Moore's last
movie where he focused on the struggle of the UE workers in Chicago.
Mightn't that have a chance at significant impact on our national politics?
Well, Jackson's campaign had a significant but paradoxical impact. On
one hand, it raised the profile of "rainbow" type issues. On the other
hand, it suckered a generation of Maoists into becoming the new version
of Earl Browder. We need the "rainbow" impact but we need to build
something outside the DP. The problem is that too few high=profile
leftists are willing to stick their neck out like Ralph Nader. If Moore
ran as the candidate of a 3rd party, that's a whole other story. He has
been grumbling but I don't know if he has the backbone that Nader has.
Frankly, when the history of American capitalism has been written by
socialist historians of the new society, he will be viewed as the
abolitionists of the 1830s are viewed now.
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