[sixties-l] Re: coups fascism democracy

From: Jeffrey Blankfort (jab@tucradio.org)
Date: 12/22/00

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    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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