A view from US citizen and SLLU member, Ernest Newman
Vote or Fight
(it might take both)
Zapatista agitprop, circa 1996
In the US right now, the revolution is at hand.
On the eve of national elections, the US is poised to surge forward ...or to be dragged down into civil war.
Maybe both.
As pathetically inadequate as the bourgeois liberal Democrats may be, the right is totally freaking out over the very likely prospect that "socialist" Democrats will not only seize the Presidency, but also a super-majority, or very close to it, in the Congress.
It's one thing, for "the most liberal Senator", a Black man, to win the Presidency.
But a Democratic super-majority in the Congress will be able to cut off at the knees Republican oppositionalism and "filibusters" (endless speeches, to block motion on legislative measures).
The Democrats have failed, in so many respects, to deliver even a "progressive" program, despite having a present majority in the Congress....but that's because they only hold a simple majority.
They have not had sufficient plurality to block filibusters, which would be required to proceed with impeachment of Bush and his cronies, end the war in Iraq, or to force through really comprehensive programs for health, environment, economy, foreign policy, etc.
The counter-revolution is not going to just accept a change in this situation. They can be expected to fight to the death, literally as well as metaphorically. There is nothing more determined and desperate than someone who has held the power in their fervid grasp, and now finds it being wrested away.
After 8 years of keeping a relatively low profile, the brown shirt militias are already starting to come out of the woodwork again, just like they did under Carter and Clinton, only this time with a much more desperate tone. There have already been several bloody incidents in the past few months, by supposed "lone nuts" and a few seemingly incompetent "wannabes". But their major organizations have been organizing fervently underground, and have been enlisting in the military to get training and access to rip off weapons and ammo, for years.
And the closer the Democrats come to total victory, the more hysterical and draconian the rhetoric of "hate radio", the "freeper" blogs, Faux News, and fringe elements of the Republican Party seem to get, more and more often explicitly calling for, or insinuating the "need" for drastic actions they themselves wouldn't dare to personally take.
It could get very ugly.
It is a conceivable possibility that the Democrats may be forced to declare martial law...not to put down a leftist rebellion, lol, but to suppress a right wing reactionary conservative fascist civil war "against the government and the left". I say bring in the black helicopters, and UN troops, if necessary, to eradicate the traitors, once and for all...but nobody listens to me, heh.
Hopefully, it won't be all that bad...maybe the right will finally recognize that their goose is cooked, and that they are going to have to learn to "love it, or leave it". I hope the door hits them in the ass on their way out, either way, heh.
Meanwhile, another struggle is underway, within the Democratic Party, at all levels, and especially on the local, grassroots level.
Beyond the issue of the sheer number of Democrats in Congress being insufficient to overcome Republican treason and sabotage on every issue, there is the issue of the "Blue Dogs" (conservative Democrats) who presently predominate in key positions of power within the Democratic party.
Due to the extremely low voter turnout so prevalent in the US, and, I would say, soley due to this factor, progressive Democrats have long been outnumbered and isolated within their own party, and unable to prevail upon the Blue Dogs to mount more resolute opposition to the Republicans.
While that situation cannot be expected to completely change with this election cycle, momentum is building, to drive these vascilating weasels from the Democratic Party, over the next several cycles.
At all levels, there is a concerted campaign underway, to purge the Blue Dogs and seize the power, by the more progressive elements. While this is being kept somewhat tamped down, presently, leading up to the elections, full scale assault on the power of the Blue Dogs can be expected to ensue immediately after the elections are over, especially on the local levels.
From local city councils and county boards of supervisors, all the way up the ladders of power, a vigorous mass movement is not only underway to establish Democratic super-majorities, to suppress the Republicans, and remove them from all levers of power, but also to challenge the Blue Dogs to either move to the left, or be replaced by more progressive candidates.
To those purist, dogmatic, doctrinaire, absolutist idealists who would dismiss such "struggle" as mere co-optation and surrender to an inherently corrupt and counter-revolutionary bourgeois capitalist system, there may be little that can be said, to convince that any of this really means anything.
Those who say, and actually think, that there is "no difference" between the two parties in the US, are not, in my experience, particularly susceptible to reason or convincing to the contrary.
I can only say that millions of people all over the world, and here in the US, are soon going to find that there are significant and substantial differences, especially where day to day survival hangs in the balance.
Will the differences be "enough"? Of course not. The struggle will continue.
The Republicans, on their way out of power, are doing everything they can to loot the treasury and sabotage the economy while they still can, to make it as difficult as possible for the new administration to even keep it's head above water. Last minute efforts to reverse environmental protections, lock us into long term commitments to war in the Middle East, and other such measures, are underway in the last days of the Bush administration..
It may take Obama's entire first term, if he survives, just to recover somewhat from the extensive damage that has been done. One glimmer of hope is that Biden, his Vice Presidential running mate, has promised that there will be investigations, prosecution, and punishment for the many treasons of the Republicans. We'll see about that...
Nobody with a brain can expect the Democrats to deliver a genuinely revolutionary program. But the fact remains that many millions of lives will be at least somewhat improved under a "Democratic" regime...which in itself will be at least somewhat "better", relatively speaking, than continuous pokes in the eye with a sharp stick, from the much more fascistic Republicans.
But beyond that, there is the historic fact, that the better conditions get, the more persistent the demands of the people get, for real, actual justice. Once they get their noses open for what it might be like, to be out from under the threat of premature death and grinding poverty, people tend to move forward and demand an actual life of dignity and fulfillment, rather than to just "go to sleep" and think "everything is all better now".
And this is in stark contrast to the effect of right wing assaults against justice and survival, dignity and fulfillment, which, in fact, tend to demoralize and grind down opposition, and to crush it brutally, when it dares to rise up and express itself.
Ah, and you might well say, thus the right and "the left" trade off the power, every so often, to keep the people confused, and perpetuate the illusion of "progress".
And you won't be absolutely wrong, in that regard, heh, any more than you are "wrong" to point out all the many shortcomings and betrayals of liberal bourgeois politicians, in terms of delivering a genuinely revolutionary program.
But the only absolute in life, and especially in politics, is that there are no absolutes, except, perhaps, death.
The absolutist idealism that refuses to vote for bourgeois liberals, even tactically, to block the worst available fascists from power..."on principle", no less...should really examine in their heart of hearts the real question: what fkn good are your "principles", if millions more people have to die, as a direct result of your refusal to "support" less than ideal candidates?
Have you ever wondered why those masses are not flocking to your "movement" in greater numbers?
If you actually have such contempt for their suffering, that you would think it's a "good thing" for them to suffer more, under a rightist regime, because that might prod them into joining your "movement", lol...then why the hell should they trust you, or accept your jive ass "leadership", LOL?
Eventually true revolutionaries must recognize that merely symbolic, futile gestures of protest and defiance are ultimately...futile. We must seize the power. History, and the people, demand material results
I remain convinced that a very major portion of counter-revolutionary strategy has long been to infiltrate and manipulate left groups, for the express purpose of injecting as much anti-electoral rhetoric and sentiment as possible into those ranks.
Oh sure, they also try to just generally spy, disrupt, discredit, and provoke illegal actions, to embarrass and get people arrested, for sure...But if they can convince you to tell others not to vote, or to split the vote with guaranteed losers from "alternative" parties, then they really have it made, because their own right wing fascist candidates will then prevail, by default.
That is, in fact, the only way a Hitler, Nixon, Reagan, Bush...or Sarkovy, or Greek fascists, etc. rise to power.
Indeed, thats the only way they can "win", is by suppressing popular democratic engagement in the electoral process, since the vast majority of the actual people tend to support progressive rhetoric and programs.
For those of you, who may harbor some understandable cynicism about where the peoples of the US are really at, I'd like to offer again the excellent reference below, which is well worth the time to read and study. It's kind of long, but it's very well written, and chock full of hard data.
The writer is not just some partisan party hack or axe grinding "pundit", but provides an in-depth scholarly analysis of US public opinion polls over the last 30 years or so.
The important thing to remember in considering this document, is that the results he reports are IN SPITE OF everything the commercial bourgeois media and various other socio-economic manipulations that the counter-revolution have brought to bear, in trying to reverse the trends. Imagine the results if Faux News, et al were brought to revolutionary justice, for their lies and slanders!
My conclusion? We won the revolution in the 60's and 70's, and in the long hard struggle since, to take it to the masses. We consciously, deliberately stood down from the ridiculous "revolutionary" posturing and armed struggle rhetoric. We took it to the people, and worked hard, for many years, on a personal, one to one, and an organizational basis, to build the genuine grassroots base of participation and support that revolution requires, anywhere.
As much as the enemy has tried to make it look like we lost, and they won, sometimes effectively fooling even many of us into thinking that was the case...as hard as it has been, for us, and for the whole world, the day has finally come. The final struggle is now at hand.
All that's left now is the mopping up and final suppression of the counter-revoutionary traitors who refuse to submit to the popular democratic will. It may take awhile, but the final struggle is now underway, and surging throughout our society. We will not be denied.
Racism, Sexism, Eco-rape, Corporate rip off, and Imperialist wars are no longer "politically correct" in the US, despite what you may have heard from various cynics and liars.
I have been invited to bring a series of polemics to this forum, for general discussion, and will try to accommodate that. Perhaps we can look at the term "American Exceptionalism" next time, and also how some of my analysis, and conditions in the US, may apply (or not, heh) in Europe, for example, and in other parts of the world.
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