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I know that no one bothers to listen to me on this list, but I totally agree with Carrol here. Obama has amply exposed himself as the "More Effective Evil" and the sooner we give up any hope that the DP can be anything else than an enemy for all radicals, the sooner we can get on with the work of establishing a real revolutionary alternative to the current swamp. David Westman On 04/18/2012 06:04 PM, Carrol Cox wrote: > > I argued recently on lbo-talk that radicals should not concern > themselves with the far-rightists who have been pushed into lunacy by > the steady right-ward move of the DP, leaving no room for even > minimally rational opposition to their right. Our concern as radicals > is expanding the number of radical activists & enlarging local left > groups; and it is the DP which is our enemy there. This is of course > especially visible in election years. I refer not to the mass of > voters but to those radicals who fall for the "lesser evil" line, and > give their time & energy to the DP. > > In the years before Wisconsin, in the decades in which, to borrow a > phrase from Tolkien, we fought the long defeat. But new possibilities > opened up after Wisconsin, as became startlingly visible in the > nationwide and even worldwide response to OWS. There have been many > horrors of police violence against Blacks during the past decade, some > worse than the Troy Davis or Trayvon Martin case: the immense > nationwide reaction to these cases showed the impact of Wisconsin on > local activists. In the 1970s the Normal Fired Department went to jail > for 40 days for refusing to obey an injunction. Near the end of the 40 > days the city contracted with a private firefighting company called > Eagle, which sent three men. When word got around on the location > where one was staying, a crowd of well over a thousand gathered, and > the man left town. (Later on a local judge, refusing to extend the > injunction, noted that the Eagle had flowen.) Time magazine published > a story on the jailing. What happened around the nation? Nothing. What > would happen now if such an event in a little hick town (such as > Normal was then) occurred? There would be demonstrations all over. > > My point: We need more local activists, desperately, because the world > is opening up for us, and we need to exploit that opening. There > aren't enough of us -- and the reason is the pull of the More > Effective Evil (Black Agenda's label for Obama) on so many who might > be giving their thinking and their energy to building the radical left > movement in this country. And it is the horror at the 'danger' of the > lunatic left that attracts them, not the positive appeal of the DP. > We've got to discipline ourselves to just ignore the Republicans and > their lunatic supporters. Keep our eye on the prize. > > Carrol > > ------------------------------------------------------------------------ > > *From:*Science for the People Discussion List > [mailto:[log in to unmask]] *On Behalf Of *Phil Gasper > *Sent:* Tuesday, April 17, 2012 10:52 PM > *To:* [log in to unmask] > *Subject:* Can You Understand the Republican Brain? > > http://truth-out.org/news/item/8564-can-you-understand-the-republican-brain? >