__________________
Philly Chit Chat
www.PhillyChitChat.com/

I know, I know, I read his speech the other day. I don't care, I'm still voting for Nader :razz:

__________________
In a time of universal deceit - telling the truth is a revolutionary act.
-George Orwell

I have to vote for the person who has the only shot at unseating Bush. Right now that's Kerry. Blame our system, but there is no point in voting for Nader. I guess that's why most abstain.

The one great thing is Chomsky will not just fall asleep if Kerry does win, he'll scrutinize him just as closely as he did the Bush administration.

__________________
In a time of universal deceit - telling the truth is a revolutionary act.
-George Orwell

Bush v. Bush-lite
Chomsky's Lesser-Evilism
By PHIL GASPER

An article in Saturday's Guardian reports that left-wing icon Noam Chomsky has given his "reluctant endorsement to the Democratic party's presidential contender, John Kerry". Chomsky's support for Kerry is far from enthusiastic. He describes the choice between Bush and Kerry as one "between two factions of the business party" and Kerry as "Bush-lite", only a "fraction" better than his Republican opponent. But Chomsky argues that the current administration is exceptionally "cruel and savage" and "deeply committed to dismantling the achievements of popular struggle through the past century no matter what the cost to the general population." He concludes that "despite the limited differences [between Bush and Kerry] both domestically and internationally, there are differences. In a system of immense power, small differences can translate into large outcomes."

Chomsky's acceptance of the "anybody but Bush" position is sure to be influential, but on this occasion the arguments he offers represent wishful thinking rather than the clear-headed political analysis for which he is famous. There is no question that the Bush administration's policies are "cruel and savage", but John Kerry (along with the majority of Democrats in the Senate) supported most of them, including the war on Afghanistan, the Patriot Act, the war on Iraq, and the "No Child Left Behind" education act. As Marjorie Williams pointed out in the Washington Post recently, "Kerry voted for so many of Bush's major initiatives that in order to disown them now he can only argue that they were wrongly or dishonestly 'implemented.' This amounts to a confession that his opponent made a chump of him for the past three years. In fact, one might argue that Kerry is a poster boy for all the ways in which congressional Democrats have allowed themselves to be rolled by the Bush administration."

The Bush administration has pushed US politics sharply to the right, but this represents not a qualitative break with what came before but an extension and continuation of "cruel and savage" policies implemented by other administrations over the past 25 years, Democratic as well as Republican. Bush's attacks on civil liberties build on the legacy of Bill Clinton, including the 1996 Effective Death Penalty and Anti-Terrorist act (supported, incidentally, by Kerry). And while Bush is certainly committed to "dismantling the achievements of popular struggle through the past century no matter what the cost to the general population", nothing that he has yet done in terms of social policy has equaled the brutality of Clinton's gutting of the federal welfare system (again supported by Kerry).

In terms of foreign policy, the differences are even smaller. Kerry's criticisms of Bush are purely tactical, as was abundantly clear in a recent interview in Time magazine:

"Look, I'm prepared to take any action necessary to protect the country, and I'm prepared to act unilaterally if we have to," Kerry insists, noting that he backed the use of force in Grenada, Panama, Kosovo and Afghanistan. "But there is a way to do it that strengthens the hand of the United States. George Bush has weakened the hand of the United States."

In fact, Kerry wants to send an additional 40,000 troops to Iraq, advocates a "muscular internationalism" in the tradition of 20th-century Democratic presidents (whose foreign policy record was far bloodier than their Republican counterparts) and even refuses to rule out "preventive" wars. Chomsky is right that "small differences can translate into large outcomes", but this plays both ways. Kerry, for instance, may be in a better position than Bush to push through the reintroduction of the draft, just as it took a Democrat to implement welfare "reform".

Making decisions about the presidential election on the basis of the minute differences between the two major party candidates is ultimately a mug's game. Whoever wins in November, we'll need the biggest and most militant social movements on the ground to fight their policies, but when activists get sucked into support for the Democrats the movements are weakened and sometimes destroyed. In 1964, when the Republicans nominated the anti-communist fanatic Barry Goldwater as their candidate, anti-war activists thought they could go "Half the way with LBJ". But as the late Hal Draper remarked in a classic article on the politics of "lesser evilism":

... you know all the people who convinced themselves that Lyndon Johnson was the lesser evil as against Goldwater, who was going to do Horrible Things in Vietnam, like defoliating the jungles. Many of them have since realized that the spiked boot was on the other foot; and they lacerate themselves with the thought that the man they voted for "actually carried out Goldwater's policy." (In point of fact, this is unfair to Goldwater: he never advocated the steep escalation of the war that Johnson put through; and more to the point, he would probably have been incapable of putting it through with as little opposition as the man who could simultaneously hypnotize the liberals with "Great Society" rhetoric.)

"So who was really the Lesser Evil in 1964?" asked Draper. "The point is that it is the question which is a disaster, not the answer. In setups where the choice is between one capitalist politician and another, the defeat comes in accepting the limitation to this choice." The same is true in 2004. The most liberal administration of the past 35 years was led by Republican Richard Nixon, who was forced to respond to ghetto rebellions, wildcat strikes and radical social movements. But the historic role of the Democrats has been to muzzle such movements. If we choose Kerry over Bush, we make it more difficult to do the only thing that ever makes a difference for our side--building real activism on the ground.

Think again Noam.

__________________
In a time of universal deceit - telling the truth is a revolutionary act.
-George Orwell

I would have rather seen Edwards. He would shore up the Northeast, most of Midwest, and make a dent in the South. PA would not even be in play! :what_is_:

The problem is that we haven't built any real activism on the ground for nearly 30 years, despite the presidencies of Reagan, Bush I and Bush II.

These days, people seem to simply want to buy their house, watch the Apprentice and think that they are going to rich . . . while saving the world from their living room or from sitting in front of the computer.

Meanwhile, I believe that Bush and his friends are evil - despite their claim to be listening to God - and are leading this nation in ways that we will regret for several generations to come.

So, vote for Nader if you want. I will vote for Kerry . . . and I won't feel bad while doing it.

that's because hippies suck chris. take a shower, get a job, and quit bitching. do you want to protest every time your guy doesn't win?
I will protest by voting against Bush so long as Kerry isn;t too ridiculous. otherwise it's 3rd party for me.

Good post, El!

I had a shower last week and I have been working for longer than you've been alive.

My point was that using the vote for a third party as an excuse for outside activism is lame (see Dissident74's post of the article by Phil Gasper).

Lastly, it's not me that is usually whining. It's you and your complaints about too many taxes, too few jobs, too much corruption. I'd don't like any of those things any more than you do but I don't use them as excuses.

well, I didn't actually mean you personally chris, I meant hippies and other activists like the ones laying the streets blocking traffic who do more against their cause than for it by such acts. and I'm not sure if I ever used i as an excuse for anything. and we will never get any real change w/o breaking the two party system. both parties have too much to lose.