A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away...

[RichardRay]

I did some political organizing work for awhile. Late 60's, 70's; those of you who were there know what was going on, others may have been taught about it in history class. I found myself in the U.S. Armed Forces. I started doing organizing work while still on active duty - that resulted in a rather unceremonious departure from government employment and some time in a nice small, secure room. After that I went on to work in other organizing programs for several years.

What does that have to do with this year’s primaries and the election in general? Well, a couple of things come to mind.

First, I left that world when I finally couldn’t stand the internecine warfare between the factions that were supposedly all working for the same ends. If anybody thinks the Clinton vs. Obama catfight has gotten out of hand, try being in the same room with a bunch of Maoists, some Stalinists, a couple of Trotskyites, a few trade union anarcho-syndicalists and an agricultural populist or two. Add a faction from the Black Panthers, a delegation from Southeast Asia and one from northern Africa. Believe me, this forum is a paragon of civility and gentility in comparison. But, that doesn’t mean that the kind of back-stabbing, crotch-kicking, tit-twisting food fights that go on here are any more likely to produce useful results than the Old Left vs. New Left vs. Peace Movement vs. the guy next door infighting of that era did. Keep your eyes on the prize, folks.

Second, and far more importantly to me, it explains why I support Barack Obama as long as he’s in the race. I don’t know who is directing Obama’s organizing campaigns, but whoever it is, he or she is really, really good at it. Better than anybody I’ve seen in U.S. electoral politics. I’m not interested in politics for emotional catharsis. The idea is to make something happen, and successful organizing is what does that. I think the Obama campaign’s work will serve as a model for organizing efforts for years to come. If the Obama forces play the game successfully enough to pull out Texas & Ohio (and I’m not saying they have, but it looks like they could), then I’m ready to say that they purely out-organized Clinton and that they will kick the ass of the Republican gerontocracy in the general. If Clinton pulls a rabbit out of her hat then she’s got more game than I think she does and I’ll haul water for her, too.

Finally, on the issue of programs and policies and who says he or she is going to do what: IT DOESN’T MAKE A BIT OF DIFFERENCE what is said now. None of what is said now has more than a single iota of bearing on what is going to get done when the dust settles and a candidate becomes the office holder. The only thing campaign rhetoric gives me is a sense of which person I think will try to do the best job he or she can in my world view. Exactly what that job is can’t be known right now, the world is just too kinky. Again, that person is Barack Obama, but I sure as hell can tell the difference between Hillary Clinton and John McCain!

This corner of this very red state where I live will go for Obama, and maybe there’s enough energy to take the whole flipping Big Square State in the Middle across the line. That’s the best I can do. Good luck to the rest of you.

[Beregond2]

1. Thanks

Thanks for bringing some common-sense perspective to this board. I sometimes wonder if the average age on here is about twelve, people get so melodramatic.

[WheelWalker]

2. There are a lot of things I don't care for about Obama, but I

must agree with you that his campaign has organization down to an art. k&r

[intaglio]

3. Ah yes, the good old days

Different country but similar problems

Trots, Maoists, Marxists, Stalinists, Anarchists, Union Realists, Dyed in the Wool Labour, Bennites, Nihilists - and people could never see why I didn't think "Communism" was a threat

mind you the extreme RW in the UK were nearly as bad (I used to do show fights with a Viking group)
Thorguard, Column88, National Front, Royalists even a few faux KKK. Weirdly the few lefties like me and most of the Saxon guys were looked on as good guys - possibly because we wouldn't stab you in the back or do an unrehearsed head-shot (2lbs of steel sword on a helmet when you don't expect it can do a lot of damage)

[Peace Patriot]

4. Good point! Although I credit the activated citizenry as well as the organizers.

THEY are the key to reforming this country. And they are awesome--both the volunteers and the voters. The organizers know how to organize, for sure. Dean's 50-state strategy is also helping. But you can't organize if you don't have fired up troops and voters. The Obama surge is coming from the grass roots--from the people! I also agree that it doesn't much matter what the policy differences are, or what the candidates say on the campaign trail--as predictors of their actions in office--although I think that Obama's early, public opposition to the Iraq War is extremely important to his SUPPORTERS, who represent the SEVENTY PERCENT of the American people who oppose this war and wanted it ended, and to whom our political establishment has been totally deaf. What will he do? I don't know. He then voted to fund the war, in obedience to the political leadership in Congress. I recall voting for the "peace candidate" in 1964 (my first vote for president)--LBJ--and before the war that he escalated was over, TWO MILLION Southeast Asians were dead, and over 55,000 U.S. soldiers, most of them draftees. Beware of Democrats bearing peace--is my motto.

Also, I happen to be watching things in South America very closely, and don't be surprised if Donald Rumsfeld (yup**) gets Oil War II: South America started before Bush leaves office. In fact, it's looking like we might see Bush Junta-instigated (Rumsfeld orchestrated) serious trouble in South America around election time in November (--a nice Bushite fly trap for a Democratic candidate).

Of course, you shouldn't completely ignore what candidates say. Just don't be daunted, disempowered, demoralized and de-activated, when it turns out that they lied to you, or when the war profiteers and global corporate predators who are running things won't PERMIT them to do what they say they are going to do. And, above all, don't let them keep disenfranchising you--with corporate-run, "trade secret" voting machines, and by other means. We WILL get our country back, no matter what happens in the primaries, in November or afterward. I am convinced of that, and always have been. I just never dreamed that we would see this astonishing level of public participation, evidenced in the primaries and in the Obama campaign, this soon. It is the most important thing that has happened in this country since the antiwar and civil rights movements of the 1960s. It is the key to reforming this country. It is the key to the future.

--------



**Rumsfeld lays out his strategy in a WaPo op-ed of 12/1/07. First, economic warfare against Venezuela (with Exxon Mobil firing the first shot a few weeks ago--attempting to freeze $12 billion in Venezuela's assets, in a dispute over Venezuela's 60% share in its own oil--a deal that Norway's Statoil, France's Total, British BP and even Chevron has agreed to--Exxon Mobil's purpose being to destabilize Venezuela--a democratic country with elections that put our own to shame for their transparency). These financial hostilities are to be followed by "swift" U.S. action in support of "friends and allies" in South America--which means (translating Rumsfeld) U.S. military intervention, on behalf of either the Bush/U.S. funded fascist thugs in Colombia, who just crossed the border of Venezuela's ally, Ecuador, and killed 17 people whom they claim were FARC supporters, in Ecuador, and have been creating incidents on Venezuela's border for some time; OR, the Bush/U.S.-funded fascist thugs within Venezuela, Bolivia, and possibly also Ecuador and Argentina, who are planning rightwing coups. (Note: All four countries have lots of oil (big new find in Argentina, recently), and leftist governments, and are allied with each other.) I think this new Rumsfeld oil war has already begun--with the incident yesterday on Ecuador's border, and Exxon Mobil's financial warfare. See
"The Smart Way to Beat Tyrants Like Chávez," by Donald Rumsfeld, 12/1/07
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/11/30/AR2007113001800.html

(And you thought Rumsfeld was "retired"!)

(Funny thing about Chavez--he was elected, twice, in highly monitored elections, and also won a U.S.-funded recall election against him, as well as surviving a U.S.-supported rightwing military coup, with the people of Venezuela rallying to his support; he has harmed no one; he has been running a scrupulously lawful government for ten years; he enjoys a 70% approval rating, and close friendships and alliances with most of South America's leaders, and he has done a great deal of good, including not only reducing poverty by 40%, but also stimulating 10% growth in Venezuela's economy, with the most growth in the PRIVATE sector--so it is very difficult to paint him as a "dictator"--because he isn't. It is a total lie--worse even than the lie about Iraq WMDs. Beware of corporate news monopolies bearing lies--that's my other motto.)

[RichardRay]

5. Agreed, two sides of the coin...

Without a constiuency willing to be organized organizers look sort of silly. Witness those of folks who traipsed around in surplus fatigues and red bandanas claiming the be the 'vanguard'. They looked around and discovered they were leading the way into a New Day, but had forgotten to get anybody to follow! It sometimes seem like a lot of those same folks have marched straight through a time warp and into DU! :-).

I wondered where Donald the Clueless had gotten to. It seemed unlike him to drop totally out of sight when there was some much damage left to be done. Now that he's galvanized into action the 90% of the Arab world that was already mad at us he can start in on the Spanish and Portuguese speaking world!

[Peace Patriot]

6. Yup, Rumsfeld is doing that, stoking up hate and destroying peace and democracy

everywhere he goes. They just got their bus boy, Uribe, in Colombia, to do a raid across the Ecuador border, to kill 17 FARC members who were asleep in a camp there. And now all hell is breaking loose. Venezuela and Ecuador have sent military forces to their Colombian borders, and Chavez closed the Venezuelan embassy in Colombia. Venezuela has millions of Colombian refugees from Colombia's 40+ year civil war, in Venezuela, and wants PEACE, and has been trying to get peace talks started--by getting FARC to release hostages (six, so far). And Uribe does this. Unbelievable! Slamming the door on peace! This is Rumsfeld's doing.

As for the guys in the army fatigues and the red bandanas, I think maybe they were just ahead of their time. Well, some of them. Cuz this country is heading for meltdown, on so many fronts. It's as if the corporate rulers WANT civil disorder, so they can use all those fancy new fascist laws they've put in place, to really bring the boot down. And if they go for a Draft, that's what's gonna happen--if not before, due to the second Great Depression they seem determined to create. We may all end up as communists. Wouldn't that be the irony of the century! But, hey, we've got to go FIND the "means of production," and bring them back here, for the workers to take them over. Kind of a drag. Hard to seize the factory if it's in China!

[Peace Patriot]

7. I've got a good web site for you, Richard. Check it out.

www.BoRev.net

I go there when I get depressed about the state of things. It always helps.