In view of the discussion on this issue, I would like to put forth the question: Had Al Gore won the state of Florida and the election without the vote count dispute, would democracy have been served, and if so, in what way? My point has been that at every stage of the elective process, from the selection of the candidates, and how and by whom they were selected, and the funding of the candidates, and by whom they were funded, and from their mutual exclusion of any third party candidate from their so-called debates, there is nothing that can be described as democratic. The depriving of thousands of Black Americans in Florida of their franchise was, in reality, no less blatant than the rest, except that we have become so inured to the inequities of the selection and funding processes that we no longer get exercised about them. Any demonstration that does not condemn the entire process and BOTH political parties (and we will assume for the sake of argument that there are two) will only play into the filthy hands of the Democrats, and if Organized Labor is involved, I can guarantee that's what will happen. Jeff Blankfort Paul wrote: > > Bill Mandel has expressed something that had been vaguely troubling me since > sometime during the "s/election" [not the greatest term here]--the possible > vulnerability to fascism that has been opened by this installation of a > non-elected ruler (really, the image of pre-Caesarean/imperial Rome has been > popping up lately re this). --In some sense, there is a vacuum > situation--the lack of a "legitimate" executive--and, as Stew has so well > said, the collapse of socialist states has meant the left is very weak to > deal with this. Still, there have been Seattle and, to lesser degree, the > convention protests, etc.; there has been some s/election protest organizing > on the net--hopefully there'll be more. But I think Bill has answered the > too calming "there's time" response someone made to my urging of > demonstrations. No, it's not clear how much time there's--not if an extreme > right, quite possibly fascist, moves into that waiting space. Let us hope > the greens (not nec'ly "Greens"), and students, and labor, the many groups of > the anti-WTO, etc.--can hold, for instance, a "day of mourning for > democracy", can run petitions "We cannot acknowledge a government not elected > by the people..." etc. in major media [I'm not usually a petitions fan, but > there are times), can build, as is now needed, in this moment from the left? > Paula >
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