((Reprinted in full with Stan's permission. Blanket permission to PI for reprints.))

January 4, 2008

Monkeywrenching the System
Ron Paul's Revolution
By STAN GOFF

For starters, I have become a single-issue voter. The two-front war in Iraq-Afghanistan continues to drag on; and I am thoroughly convinced that no viable Democratic nominee will stop these occupations.

The recent analysis by Allan Nairn shows that even the putative anti-war Edwards (who the press is smothering because of his anti-corporate declarations) has a backroom full of defense contractors. Clinton is a ruthless war-monger, period. Obama is employing on the sorriest, pro-Zioinist, neoliberal trash on the market, i.e., Zbigniew Brzezinski, Richard Clarke, and Dennis Ross, on his core advisory staff.

((See these initial links: http://www.progressiveindependent.com/dc/dcboard.p... & http://www.progressiveindependent.com/dc/dcboard.p...

No one listens to me much, but in some fantasy world where they might, I would suggest that others follow suit with me here. In open primary states, cross over to vote in the Republican primaries for Ron Paul. In closed primary states, switch fast to Republican (like in the next few days).

Vote in the Republican primary; and vote for Ron Paul. Turnout will be dismally low for Republicans this year, because they have been demoralized by the Bush loons' performances. Independents will vote Paul. The other Republicans are engaged in a fratricidal melee.

I already know what I am going to hear from all over the program-intoxicated, "I won't endorse this-n-that position" liberal-left. Ron Paul is backward on abortion, passively racist, anti-immigrant, and on and on. Sorry, but I said I'd vote a dead cat that was anti-war before I'd vote a resurrected Eugene Debs if he showed up and supported the war. I meant that from my heart.

Cynthia McKinney is running Green, though she hasn't got the nomination yet. Remember Cynthia McKinney? When she broke with the DLC diktat, her own party fronted another Black woman (Denise Majette) to run against her in an open primary, and Republicans crossed over massively to vote in the Democratic primary to unseat her in a foregone Democratic Congressional district.

Two can play that game. If Cynthia McKinney runs in 2008 for President, I'll write her in if I have to just to burn a vote for Clinton or Obama. But meanwhile, Ron Paul is on our primary ballot (North Carolina), because he is running as a Republican (we have draconian ballot access conditions here for thrid-parties, thanks to -- of course -- Democrats).

Ron Paul is running for President. Just what are the capabilities of a President, and what are his likely courses of action... in the unlikely event he wins?

Well, he is the Commander-in-Chief, so he can bring the troops home immediately, as well as order the military-industrial complex to radically scale back. In case anyone on the left has missed the implications of this, this would be a profoundly anti-imperial development that would take the US boot off the necks of hundreds of millions of people around the world.

He is a libertarian who dislikes corporate subsidies, so he would veto the mega-billion dollar subisidies for Big Agra, Big Pharma, nuclear power company insurance policies, Weapons-R-Us, the ADM/Cargill Great Ethanol Scam,et al. He could veto the federal highway spending that is promoting sprawl. He has also stated that he opposed so-called free trade agreements.

Hello?

Don't argue with libertarians when they are right. Many of them say that the leviathan-capitalists that dominate the world's economy could not get as big as they are in an unfettered and unsubsidized market. Newsflash: that is actually true.

Ron Paul is a Gold Bug. For the uninitiated, that means he believes dollar-value should be pegged to a gold-standard. The implications of a return to the gold standard by the Fed are grim... for Wall Street and the military, both of which depend on massive foreign loans convered by runaway printing presses. Putting a stop to this is a Good Thing. What is the net effect?

Ron Paul may have the most outrageous personal account of race you might imagine; but what is the most horrific social catastrophe in the United States for Black and Brown folk? You guessed it: the criminal (in)justice system. The malignant growth of the American Gulag has been fueled -- more than by any other cause -- by the ever-more-punative criminalization of drug use and drug addiction, and the ability fo the criminal justice system to apply this criminalization with special force against African America and Hispano-Latinas. Here's the thing. Paul opposes the criminalization of drugs. What is the net effect?

When we are at the point in history where we cannot change the electoral system, then we need to think tactically about what we can do right now. What will a Paul victory in the primaries do? Not whether a vote for Paul in the Republican primaries endorses his decentralizing philosophy on reproductive choice. President Paul will not be writing legislation. The Executive Branch decides how strongly to enforce legislation... like domestic spying fer-instance.

President Paul would close Guantanamo, halt CIA kidnappings, and gut the enforcement capacity for the PATRIOT Act.

Nominee Paul would give 2008 voters a choice between a real anti-war candidate and a phony Democratic equivocator. The intensity of anti-war sentiment in the country already forced ex-war-hawk Edwards to adopt an out-in-nine-months position to left flank his Democratic opponents.

Don't ask yourself "what are the ideas?" If your toilet backs up, you can come up with a thousand ideas while shit-water cascades onto the floor. The question is not about ideas; it is, "What will be the net effect?"

Wanna throw a monkey wrench into a fixed electoral system? Here's a chance.

http://www.counterpunch.org/goff01042008.html


Ok. This is my confession time to. Two days ago, I went to the DMV and changed my registration to Republican. I'm temporarily crossing over too. It wasn't an easy decision but I think everyone here already knows where I'm coming from and how strongly I feel that if I can do something that will save even one innocent victim of US aggression, I'll do it. I was really shocked to get this piece today. Stan's a fellow Veteran for Peace. Now I'm curious how many more people reached that conclusion. Don't tell me, I'm not asking to know. Your vote is your own business; between you and your conscience.

http://rafahtoday.org | http://gazatoday.blogspot.com | http://benjaminheine.blogspot.com
http://angryarab.blogspot.com | http://www.chris-floyd.com/war | LIGHT A CANDLE FOR GAZA

The law, in its majestic equality, forbids the rich as well as the poor to sleep under bridges, to beg in the streets, and to steal bread. -Anatole France

The rich man's table is the ooor man's grave...

My Ron Paul rant…
4th January 2008, 07:25 pm by Stan

This morning, between getting ready for work and cooking breakfast, I dashed off a quick piece for Counterpunch, floating the idea that the anitwar movement — that has once again been sidelined by the Democratic Party and the media — could cross over during the Presidential primaries and vote as Republicans… casting a Republican primary vote for Ron Paul.

CP ran the piece, typos and all, and my email box has summarily filled up.
Damn.

Once I weed out the deeply weird stuff, like one that claimed Ron Paul is a closet communist in the pay of Jewish bankers, the rest either applauded my suggestion, or reviled it in ways that I had predicted in the rant, and a few wanted to “correct” me on my allusion to Ron Paul as a “passive racist.” Several did not seem to get the tactical gist of my proposal.

I take responsbility for any and all lack of clarity; and I’ll try to correct that now.

Let me start with the suggestion of “passive racism.” This is an offense for which about 90 percent of white people are guilty… hey, we live in a white supremacist society. It’s in the air. I won’t engage in extensive polemical arguments about the difference between white supremacy (a system that is reflected in the minds of the peope in that system). Every liberal who ever said we can’t leave Iraq because without the Americans there the place would descend into chaos… is a passive racist. This is a white supremacist assumption.
My main point was that the biggest social catastrophe for Black and Brown folk in the US today is the criminal justice system and the American gulag that goes with it.

Bill Clinton might be more comfortable drinking wine with boozhie African Americans than Ron Paul; and Bill Clinton might have somehow convinced a lot of Black folk that he is “the first Black President.” But Bill Clinton is the reason there are well over 2 milliion human beings languishing in hell-hole prisons in the US right now, with people of color shockingly over-represented among them. Clinton’s crime bill did that; and the main method for locking up all these people has been for non-violent drug offenses on their first incarceration.

One candidate has quoted the figures on how this has unfairly impacted African Americans. Ron Paul. He opposes the criminalization of drugs. The issue of blanket pardons — within the President’s authority, and the de-prioritization of federal drug enforcement, are both within the Prez’s purview.

One point I emphasized in my rant is the difference between agreeing with someone’s expressed views and the net effect of someone’s likely actions.

In this case, I pose a hypothetical question. If Ron Paul were elected, what would the net effect of his policies be on the American Gulag, given the capabilities and limitations of the office?

That’s all.

My main point was that the war is my issue. Let me flesh that out. This war has caused the deaths of over a million human beings. Iraq and Afghanistan have become abattoirs. Stopping this war is an urgent and immediate moral imperative.
Let me add something to this. As an anti-imperialist, who believes US hegemony in the world is the most destructive and dangerous political force in our world, and as someone who wants to see that political power broken, for good, there is no single action that would underline an immediate and decisive loss of some of that power than US withdrawal from Iraq and Afghanistan.

This is exactly why whichever DLC-anointed candidate is nominated, the Democratic Party leadership has not the least intention of reversing what is going on in Southwest Asia: the permanent post-Cold War re-disposition of the imperial armed forces of the United States of America. The leadership of the Democrtatic Party is committed to American imperialism.

Any leftist who is more interested in seeing the net practical effect of a US withdrawal from Southwest Asia (Paul proposes that all US troops return to the US!) than promoting the all-or-nothing, comprehensive program of some toy International, should give this some thought.

Let’s back away from the most unlikely scenario — that Paul would actually be elected. What if he were to get the Republican nomination? If he were to campaign solely on the issue of the war, a Democratic candidate could be forced into adopting an out-now position to fend off this challenge. The majority of the people in the United States want out of this war.

Let’s back further away from improbability. Ron Paul gets a massive crossover vote from antiwar folks that is pulled from the left. Whomever comes in second among the Democrats — along with the Democratic Party leadership — will see the tangible threat that can be posed by independent coalition politics… even on a relatively small scale.

We must become spoilers; and quit being so terrified. Spoilers today; rebels tomorrow. Hey, you only live once.

Now for one of the more polemical reactions (based on Ron Paul’s personal opposition to abortion):

Hi. Saw your Counterpunch article. Guess you’ve abandoned women for the Gold Standard, huh?

More than half of Iraqis are women. Half of the billions who are immiserated by dollar hegemony are women.

Paul’s position on choice is exactly that of Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid. Reid was put in that position by a unanimous vote of the other D senators!

http://rafahtoday.org | http://gazatoday.blogspot.com | http://benjaminheine.blogspot.com
http://angryarab.blogspot.com | http://www.chris-floyd.com/war | LIGHT A CANDLE FOR GAZA

The law, in its majestic equality, forbids the rich as well as the poor to sleep under bridges, to beg in the streets, and to steal bread. -Anatole France

The rich man's table is the ooor man's grave...

I was amazed at the outright indignation of those against a fellow poster here who listed all these same issues about RP from the get go. I agree with you Tin and I agreed with the other fellow poster then.

I've been waiting to see how the dominoes would fall when it came down to it as I suggested we all move over and register Republican over a year ago, but it fell on deaf ears.

Ending the war and stopping any further wars is MAJOR priority. I'm also with you on Cynthia McKinney.. that girl has it goin' on!

Thank you for once again sparking my heart within PI. You've once again reached down and drawn from the deep well that drew me to your posts and to PI from the get go.



Come Monday morning, I will be registering Republican from Independent. Let's STOP what we are doing to others and then we can concentrate on OURSELVES and start redoing that in a just way.

______________________________________________

"Perhaps that's what the 21st century has in store for us. The dismantling of the Big. Perhaps it will be the Century of the Small Things." http://arundhatiroy.org.uk/

"Is it more important to knock a person down or to work with them when their heart is in the right place?"


"Death means stepping into the spiritual condition we have been creating within us all our life."

"Love as much as you can, by all the means you can, in all the ways you can, at all the places you can, during all the times you can, for as many people as you can, for as long as you can." -Kevin Williams, a modification of John Wesley's quote

The difference is in the endorsement. Stan isn't endorsing his positions other than the very top ones and is very honest about his shortcomings. If there's one thing on some other sites that used to get my goat it was people deliberately painting candidates as holy saints and dancing around direct questions. Still no one's been banned for that here; we've been very lucky that our members won't stand for it either.

I love Cynthia McKinney but much depends, for me, on how solid and serious of a campaign she runs. Her heart doesn't seem to be very much in this.

Btw, I have had several wishes for you from Gaza but have been negligeant in passing them on. I did try to call to personally deliver them but thought you might be traveling.

What Stan's suggesting isn't easy. I choked when I signed the paperwork changing my registration and I would never encourage anyone to do it anymore than I would tell anyone who to vote for. My conscience right now can't carry all the death and destruction we're causing. And for much of the rest, I'm so convinced it's going to crash with the status quo that if it crashes a little sooner, what's the problem?

http://rafahtoday.org | http://gazatoday.blogspot.com | http://benjaminheine.blogspot.com
http://angryarab.blogspot.com | http://www.chris-floyd.com/war | LIGHT A CANDLE FOR GAZA

The law, in its majestic equality, forbids the rich as well as the poor to sleep under bridges, to beg in the streets, and to steal bread. -Anatole France

The rich man's table is the ooor man's grave...

and it is hard to argue his points. hmmmm

http://gorilla.wildlifedirect.org/
http://www.stopwhaling.org/site/c.foJNIZOyEnH/b.26...

http://www.stopaipac.org/
http://www.chris-floyd.com/war/
BOYCOTT ISRAEL HERE>>>>>>>>http://www.inminds.co.uk/boycott-israel.php#compan...


Skinner and EarlG's DU is a gatekeeper for the status quo banksters and corporatists in the so-called democratic party. I wonder how much they get paid?

kick

http://gorilla.wildlifedirect.org/
http://www.stopwhaling.org/site/c.foJNIZOyEnH/b.26...

http://www.stopaipac.org/
http://www.chris-floyd.com/war/
BOYCOTT ISRAEL HERE>>>>>>>>http://www.inminds.co.uk/boycott-israel.php#compan...


Skinner and EarlG's DU is a gatekeeper for the status quo banksters and corporatists in the so-called democratic party. I wonder how much they get paid?

...sounds too much like 'fear factor voting' for my electoral tastes. It's not that i don't get, or appreciate, where Goff is coming from; he seems to imagine it goes a lot further than it really does, or will. At best, it serves a short term purpose: nudging the 'national debate' towards a few more interesting and useful topics, like US imperialism, militarism, and various Constitutional usurptions by the executive, etc. But only for a very short time: by March 5th (less than nine weeks), it's possible the nomination process will be over for both Parties. And it certainly won't be Ron Paul for the GOPs--the Old Guard will deliberately wreck the Party before turning it over to the kind of crazy, loser candidate they thought Goldwater was in '64. As for the Dims, we'll be stuck with either Saddam Hussein Osama or Hillary, the Dreaded She-Beast. Something tells me that Edwards will look a hell of a lot better to many of us then than he does now. It's quite remarkable how worsening circumstances compromise one's ideals...

will disappear with an electoral vote? They have nothing to gain and everything to lose by allowing democracy to take its course.

Just remember that after the next 'grassy knoll'.

gc

"I have no enemy but you. You are the occupier," Moqtada Sadr

that they would? The game of musical Oval Office chairs isn't going to inconvenience the many factions of the ruling class to any discernable degree, esp. if Clinton, Obama, or any Republican (excepting Paul, of course) is elected. The only difference will be how many crumbs their corporate leash-holders are willing to left fall to Great Unwashed. Besides, that, Paul and Kucinich don't need any help from the establishment to lose...

I was making the point that it is difficult to grasp the extent to which the noose has been tightened. One only need think that they must have several back up plans to have indulged in such gross and diabolical criminality...which they basically laid out like a french waiter for all to see.

9/11 for example. I believe they intentionally left evidence of government complicity all over the place as a 'finger' to law enforcement and the 'justice system'. They will stop at nothing to further their agenda, that's all.

gc

"I have no enemy but you. You are the occupier," Moqtada Sadr

I don't any hint of the fear factor in Stan's writing. Sounds more like hard cold "this is what we have to work with" and "here's an opportunity on a golden platter" to me.

Stan's whole idea is tactical. Considering that Kucinich and Gravel have been knocked out, the last political chance to stop this war and the coming planned ones which all 3 Democrats are on board with, is getting Ron Paul in the White House.

If Ron Paul, after ending the war and stemming the tide of US interventions, wrecks a few domestic things, what possible problem could people who want a revolution to wreck those things and start anew possibly have with that.

I disagree that this can't go far. It could if enough people back him and monkeywrench their script.

I think you know I'm not a Ron Paul fan but I'd love nothing more than to see the Obama/Bzrezenski war duo cornered by Paul during national debates. I get a sense you'd enjoy the fireworks also.

I think Paul can do it. He's done amazingly well raising over $20 million from individuals with the average contribution at $76. That's a lot of votes. Definitely more than the others and more than the others combined I believe.
Add to that crossover antiwar Leftists who never gave Paul any previous support and you've got a real revolution on your hands.

There are a lot of angry people like me out there for whom the war is the number one issue and who don't want to be co-opted by domestic issues the Left failed to make a case for over the years and destroyed the antiwar movement about with their ego.

I agree with you about Edwards looking better but that's only because they've removed ALL honest discussion of war from the picture. We could dress up a turd at this point and it would look good. Still no, I won't give someone who qualifies for a Nuremberg charge of conspiring for war a second's support especially knowing that our PNAC friends announced over 2 years ago that they would give this election to Democrats because Republicans were damaged goods and Democrats would continue their agenda (Iran, Pakistan, Sudan).

I'll be watching this one closely. I think Paul is going to do a lot better in New Hampshire because they won't have to contend with the fundamentalist Christian vote.

I agree with you that the Old Guard will do everything, even murder, before they let Paul near the nomination but that shouldn't stop any tactical or strategic votes- especially in an election where most Republicans are too sick, too angry at the lies to vote.

On edit: As far as voting power goes this election, it belongs to the under 30 crowd. The same crowd that stands to be drafted and will have to foot the bill for this bipartisan mess. If you look at the places where they congregate (My Space for example), the winner is Ron Paul hands down. Kucinich came in a close second but he has no idea how to leverage that power and blew it. Ron Paul hasn't and his campaign has appreciated every single effort made by those young supporters- to the point that they go without sleep running websites, hitting the streets, printing leaflets, renting blimps, showing up at the Rose Bowl in a loud "impeach" presence. I think his chances are decent.

http://rafahtoday.org | http://gazatoday.blogspot.com | http://benjaminheine.blogspot.com
http://angryarab.blogspot.com | http://www.chris-floyd.com/war | LIGHT A CANDLE FOR GAZA

The law, in its majestic equality, forbids the rich as well as the poor to sleep under bridges, to beg in the streets, and to steal bread. -Anatole France

The rich man's table is the ooor man's grave...

and reregister as a Republican just for the honor and privilege of voting for Paul (do they make clothespins for noses that big?), i'd point out that we (the 'left') sat on our asses for most of '07 not working for Kucinich or Gravel, but now that the options have narrowed, are supposed to make up for it by working for Paul? No, we had our oppportunity and we took a pass; i'd rather take a pass on this as well.

I'm not entirely convinced that all three leading Dims are warmongers--Hillary, the Dreaded She-Beast, is obviously the most dangerous and potentially reckless (and for the obvious reasons that need not be reiterated here). Obama would be more in the Bubba mold--talk tough and lob a few cruise missiles at some offending country, sanction the occasional black-ops, send a peacekeeping force here or there, etc., but otherwise restore the MIC to its traditional role of squandering hundreds of billions of taxpayer dollars on unnecessary (and unnecessarily high-tech) weapons systems that only fatten the IRA's of elite investors.

Edwards is a somewhat more difficult case: he's the only one willing to take big risks in refashioning his platform (apologizing for the IWR vote, accelerating the schedule for evacuating Iraq); he's only a primary or caucus away from explicitly connecting the dot of militarism/imperialism to the dot of economic distress for ordinary citizens (if he only stop pandering to the middle class and start pandering to the working poor). That not only accomplishes everything Goff recommends vis a vis Paul, but does so in more intellectually competent (and progressive) rhetoric. His fawning to AIPAC is troubling, but as the Israeli lobby hasn't come through for him in funding, endorsements, etc., i wouldn't be surprised if they'd rank rather low on the A-list of a Pres. Edwards' rolodex, if they made it at all.

I disagree that Paul will do well in NH--true, they don't have the fundamentalist infestation that Iowa Republicans and Independents have, but they don't have much of a fringe-right GOP/indy wing either; besides all the polls have NH independents breaking for (in descending order) Obama, McCain and Edwards--bet you a nickel Paul doesn't break double-digits. The other thing to remember is that after this, there is a string of members-only primaries, and Paul is decidedly unpopular among registered Republicans.

Your final point about this being an under-30 election isn't entirely accurate, and presumes far too much faith in both the 'power' of the internet and the electoral stanima of youth. As my son says of campus politics: a 'protest' at his college consists of a MySpace page...which only keeps Murdoch's market value of that possession up.

I don't know if you were around one year ago when a stupid poll I put up to ask PI's opinion on supporting Kucinich caused a ridiculous uproar, made even more ridiclous that it was a former Wesley Clark and George Bush supporter who were the most offended. The options have narrowed but I can't take a pass and not do anything. Edwards, whose current persona I find the least objectionable, will never get my support. He can apologize for his vote all he wants with 20/20 hindsight but that won't mean squat because he hasn't worked very hard at undoing all the damage he caused. Nor has he, more importantly, apologized to the right people- those being the victims of his involvement in the conspiracy to launch an illegal war.

3 years ago, Edwards was so totally unapologetic about his vote that he admitted he wasn't fooled and had never been fooled but wanted that war. Come the 2008 elections, his campaign rhetoric suddenly shifts. I can't buy it. Especially not from a guy who says he's sorry about his Iraq vote (vote? he co-sponsored the thing) and then assures Tel Aviv he's on the same page as them concerning Iran.

We'll see what happens. I could be dead wrong about Paul but I always felt he'd do better than people thought. How much better is the question...

http://rafahtoday.org | http://gazatoday.blogspot.com | http://benjaminheine.blogspot.com
http://angryarab.blogspot.com | http://www.chris-floyd.com/war | LIGHT A CANDLE FOR GAZA

The law, in its majestic equality, forbids the rich as well as the poor to sleep under bridges, to beg in the streets, and to steal bread. -Anatole France

The rich man's table is the ooor man's grave...

Most men have reveries about supermodels; I'm sustained by the image of Paul tearing into any one of those warmongering scumbags. Heck, I'd take off work and spend the next 48 hours in computer isolation, giggling like Cagney as the liberal blogs go into meltdown.

peace and low stress

basic common denominator at work via critical thinking skills versus being beholden to some party for some reason or another.

I had originally registered as a Democrat believing that is where I would best fit back in 2000.

Registered as an Independent after 2004 because I was fed up after Kooch gave over the Kerry. I don't care what party I belong to or where my vote goes as long as it's the right person for the job and for now it seems he fits the bill IF you want the war stopped and the constitution restored and the spying stopped along with the crazy out of control spending.

Most people are afraid he will end something they've counted on for a long time now when the truth is that it IS ending whether he ends it or not due to our out of control government.

No he's not perfect, but he is the only person I see who has the intelligence and balls to take the lawlessness out of our government and stop the madness of killing people for their resources or lands.

We are so far gone, I'm not sure that it even matters any more, but just in case it does.. I'm down for it.

As for McKinney... I agree that I'm not sure her heart is in it, but if she shows some spunk and fire.. count me in because I love her heart and integrity.

______________________________________________

"Perhaps that's what the 21st century has in store for us. The dismantling of the Big. Perhaps it will be the Century of the Small Things." http://arundhatiroy.org.uk/

"Is it more important to knock a person down or to work with them when their heart is in the right place?"


"Death means stepping into the spiritual condition we have been creating within us all our life."

"Love as much as you can, by all the means you can, in all the ways you can, at all the places you can, during all the times you can, for as many people as you can, for as long as you can." -Kevin Williams, a modification of John Wesley's quote

http://www.feralscholar.org/blog/index.php/2008/01...

The comments range from extremely supportive from several Marxists I know to outraged how-could-you-do-such-a-thing. All of them thoughtful however.

The antiwar sentiment of the general population has been bottled up on the one hand by competing leftoid sects who are trying to use the war as a ramp-up for a larger agenda, and on the other hand by a rigged, bourgeois-democratic electoral system that employs multiple mechanisms (ballot access restrictions, wealth primaries, winner-take-all non-proportional voting, district gerrymandering, and two extremely well-financed and entrenched party bureaucracies) that is the only legal outlet offered to the public for change of any kind.

Engaging in tactical interventions, with our eyes wide open (how dare so many people lecture some of us on what these elections are!), by voting collectively to monkeywrench the system (use it in ways that were not intended by the establishment), is not a frigging endorsement.

Stop using that language, because it is a straw man. If you believe this is an “endorsement” of all the views of Ron Paul, it is worse than a straw man (which is a garden variety logical fallacy). It is buying directly into the establishment claim that 50.1% of a vote is somehow a “mandate.” In other words, you are accepting their premise that this is something far more than playing a bad hand in a game.

Josiah, my friend, no offense, but I have to quote you on one reply to this very common accusation of “endorsement.”


For those of us on the socialist, feminist, anti-racist, anti-imperialist…


Every single thing we do in our political lives cannot include every aspect of our political beliefs. In the case of Paul, I have said repeatedly, his personal beliefs are not the issue. I am simply suggesting a way to participate in these elections that does not conform to the election-legitmation script. In the real United States circa 2008, Obama and Edwards and Clinton are a far greater obstacle to the ability of socialists, feminists, anti-racists, and anti-imperialists than the personal beliefs of Ron Paul.

This programmatic fetish, a kind of ritual listing of our core beliefs as a measuring stick every time we make a decision about what we do next, is a substitution of expression for instrumentality. And as a marxist (in many respects I am that, though not in the orthodox sense), this program-fetish approach to politics — including elections — is an exercise of philosophical idealism… the idea that right-thinking produces right-acting. Any historical materialist worth her/his salt should remember the HM 101 premise… ideas are a reflection of lived experience, not the opposite.

The Democratic Party machine has not the least whiff of fear of any person or grouplet that touts its “socialist, feminist, anti-racist, anti-imperialist” program every time it gets a soapbox. At the same time, the Democratic Party machine is the single biggest impediment in the United States to advancing any apsect of those beliefs. It is the good cop that keeps us bottled up. Before you can move forward, then, you have to break the bottle…

(snip)


Ron Paul’s close-the-borders talk is no different than any of the pols; but his antipathy to Free Trade (TM), if acted on, would do more to address the root causes of Hispano-Latina displacement to the US than all the pro-corporate partial measures supported by Dems.

I have also heard people referring to libertarians as “right wing.” This betrays a fundamental ignorance of the guiding philosophy of most libertarians (with which a admantly disagree). Libertarians do not fit neatly onto some imaginary left-to-right continuum. Libertarianism is a religious dogma… and I don’t mean that in a perjorative way. I mean it is based on a set of unwaivering principles against which everything is measured. It is based a very strict interpretation of the idea of civil liberties (and on private property, which is where it fails philosophically, but we can have that discussion in another thread).

(snip)

One of the expressions of that strict civil libertarian standpoint is that it defaults against pre-emptive war, against the criminalization of drugs, against government spying, etc. These are not right-wing positions. In fact, it throws the whole right-left paradigm into doubt… just as the ecological, food-praxis, communalist leftism I have come to embrace wrong-foots the R-L paradigm from the… left? These polarities are constructions… archaic ones in my view.

I’ll fight libertarians tooth and nail if they try to privatize national parks. I’ll side with evangelicals against them on the issue of state lotteries (which I oppose). But if they are pushing to bring the military back inside the boundaries of the US, or stop the construction and maintenance of highways (which are taxpayer-subsidized corporate infrastructure), I’m going to be shoulder-to-shoulder with them.

I am not a libertarian. But I have received a lot of emails in the last day from libertarians who know I am not a libertarian, who are saying the same thing I am. Let’s work together to stop the war.

I have two sons in the Army.

(snip)

=======================================

From peggy:

Stan,

Voting in the U.S. is optional, and almost half of the eligible U.S. population exercises the option *not* to vote. That is the giant hole in the dike right there. I’m wondering why you don’t just join the masses and exercise the option not to vote. To cast your one little vote for some major jerk is not a revolutionary act, nor will it in any way disrupt the system. Please rein back on that male ego a little bit, and concentrate your energies where they will really make a difference for real people right now.


STAN: It takes me around half an hour all tolled to vote (driving time included). Is there something revolutionary I ought to be doing with that half an hour? Peggy, the refusal to vote in the US right now does not have one iota of an effect against the system. I really don’t understand what you are talking about here.

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From jon:


STAN: I am there. Read the site. I am a McKinney supporter. How does that conflict with voting Paul in the Republican primary?


If you are voting as an individual act, I think that is fine albeit pointless. (Of course, in states where party registration is tracked it could kick you out of legalistic participation in other parties. I don’t think I could be on my state green coordinating committee if I was a registered Republican!)

But if you are working and advocating for voting for Ron Paul, I disagree. At that point, adding points to his total builds his movement, the people around him, his message, etc. That I think is destructive for the reasons in my above post. Contributing to the gathering of free market fundamentalists, racists and religious fundamentalists, distracting anti-war people away from a campaign like McKinney’s - that’s destructive.

It also takes energy better put toward talking to people about McKinney’s candidacy, Gulf Coast Reconstruction, Jena, why US foreign policy is imperialist, etc.


STAN: Some people just won’t admit when they’ve said something that makes no sense. I have received hundreds of emails over the last two days from people like me (not free market fundamentalists, blah blah blah) who are doing the same thing. On “talking to people,” there are some people who have written more than I have about the topics you list above, but not a lot. I suggest you browse this blog, or have a peek at any of the books or articles I have written, or we can chat about 21 practical trips to Haiti, work with antiwar veterans, dozens of speaking engagements, jillions of meetings, or even what I might be doing now, ie, learning about food systems.

I’ve spent more time responding to these straw men over the last two days than I did writing the rant. Whatever protean thing might be “developing” around Paul will change when the major force in that development becomes antiwar.

This contagion thesis you imply is a hoary old myth that has kept the left isolated and fractured for decades. We will be contaiminated by the unclean libertarians. Every scratch of impurity threatens to turn into full-fledged gangrene… sheesh! Come out of your bunkers, before your immune systems fail from lack of exercise.

5 January 2008, 8:32 pm

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john steppling:
stan…..i just wrote a piece on your piece and on paul a bit….and probably too many other things.
http://www.bestcyrano.org/voxpop/?p=243

5 January 2008, 9:54 pm

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zerowing:
I’m really troubled by the parochialism exhibited (enthusiastically) by so many Democrats and purported liberals in reaction to Ron Paul’s candidacy. The most common refrains go something like the following:

1) Sure, he’s antiwar but he’s going to cut my grandmother’s Social Security and throw her out on the street!
2) I like how Ron Paul is getting the Repukes bent out of shape but he would outlaw abortion if he got elected!!
3) I can’t vote for him because he doesn’t believe in evolution!`

This is the kind of knee-jerk reaction I saw a LOT of the last time around… by Republicans (”I hate Bush but I could never vote for a Democrat because he’d just open the borders to terrorists”).

The reason this is so incredibly, agonizingly, infuriatingly frustrating to me is that I hear this not just from people around the web but also from progressive activists I have known for years. Many are liberals, some are Democrats, some even have been in the Workers Party for decades. How can so many of these people support ::gag:: Obama and have previously supported ::shudder:: John Edwards and yet vow to not support Paul? We finally have a truly antiwar candidate who is viable and not afraid to use the word “imperialism” to describe the US government’s foreign policy. We have someone who asserts that maintaining an empire is wrong not only because it’s unsustainable but also because it’s morally reprehensible. It’s the same message progressives have been trying to get across for years. Ron Paul is no Howard Dean.

Many people here have already debunked the myths about Paul that I listed above, but I’ll repeat that the guy is not going to cancel anyone’s Social Security checks, or try to get Roe v. Wade overturned. He is saying that what we have now isn’t a “free market” but rather a shared monopoly.

Why the laundry list of pet issues that every candidate must adhere to? It’s really frustrating to see the progressive/antiwar movement continue biting its own ankles.

This article here sums things up better than I ever could: http://www.opednews.com/articles/opedne_caleb_fr_0...

6 January 2008, 12:59 pm




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it is well worth reading them all.

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http://www.stopwhaling.org/site/c.foJNIZOyEnH/b.26...

http://www.stopaipac.org/
http://www.chris-floyd.com/war/
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Skinner and EarlG's DU is a gatekeeper for the status quo banksters and corporatists in the so-called democratic party. I wonder how much they get paid?

being fought in two hermetically sealed spheres.

The Internet

and the M$M.

gc

"I have no enemy but you. You are the occupier," Moqtada Sadr