Reply #34: One of my posts about the last Dem presidential primary from Feb 2008 [View All]

[Zorra]

I'm not voting in the Dem primary for the first time in my life.
Posted by Zorra in General Discussion: Presidential (Through Nov 2009)
Tue Feb 05th 2008, 03:13 PM

I see both of these candidates as nothing but representatives of some new and as yet unnamed hybrid political party, a cross between the Republican and Democratic Parties. The Corporatarian Party might be an appropriately descriptive name for this party. This new party has fully usurped our democracy, as it recognizes corporations and a ruling economic elite class as the sole legitimate determinant of the political, social and economic policies undertaken by the government of the United States.

In the general election, I'll vote for the candidate that is nominated by the Democratic party, but my vote will be cast in an attempt to prevent a republican from being elected President.

I'm not a "Socialist", but when I read this piece while searching for information on the two remaining Dem candidates, I found myself strongly inclined to agree with it:

"For millions of voters, and particularly for young people, the response to Obama’s campaign reflects both a deep-going desire for significant social and political change, as well as widespread illusions—fostered assiduously by the media—that the election of the first black president would represent a fundamental break with an old and discredited political order in the United States.

Obama is not, however, the product of the civil rights struggles against racial oppression, nor is he associated with any popular movement from below. His career has far more in common with those of Condoleezza Rice and Colin Powell, individuals selected and groomed by the American ruling class to carry out its policies. Like them, he is being used to put a new face on fundamentally reactionary policies and institutions.
snip---
It is necessary to distinguish sharply between the political shift among working people and youth, a movement to the left which presages the outbreak of mass social and political struggles, and the efforts of the ruling elite to manipulate popular sentiments, manufacture illusions, and disarm the masses politically.

The Obama campaign is not the vehicle of a leftward movement in the United States—as proclaimed by liberal groups such as MoveOn.org and publications like The Nation. It is a preemptive attack by the ruling class against such a movement. Its function is to delude the American people and divert their growing opposition to war, economic crisis and attacks on democratic rights back into the dead-end of the Democratic Party."

http://www.wsws.org/articles/2008/feb2008/...

On edit: great post. I will vote for Obama because he is better than a republican. But if he is challenged by a progressive in a primary, I will vote for the progressive.