tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7271382.post968886654657937204..comments2023-10-30T06:05:06.407-05:00Comments on Keep On Keepin' On....: Denver Diaries: Six Days of Organizing at the DNCCarl Davidsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00215874972566616424noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7271382.post-22029667000307158162008-12-21T11:43:00.000-06:002008-12-21T11:43:00.000-06:00Hi Steve.My thought is that Obama, at his best, is...Hi Steve.<BR/><BR/>My thought is that Obama, at his best, is a high-road green industrial policy brand of liberal capitalist, still trying to define his own niche. Also at his best, that puts him on the right wing of the solidarity economy, or as an SE ally on some projects.<BR/><BR/>For example, he's promoted Austin Polytech in Chicago as a model high school for the country in his Dayton speech on education policy. This school was designed by a number of members of the US Solidarity Economy Network, including myself, and currently has a project to sent a group of its students, all from low-income Black families, to the Mondragon Coops in Spain for a study tour. Mondragon, as you may know, is one of the mother lodes of the solidarity economy movement worldwide.<BR/><BR/>I've known Obama from the time he first ran for any office, and know his strengths and weaknesses fairly well. When he veered too far on Iraq, I supported both Kucinich and Richardson over him.<BR/><BR/>During the campaign, when opposing Hillary, he turned more our way, but now he's waffling the other way, especially on Afghanistan. It can destroy his presidency if he gets sucked in deep, and we not only need to tell him so, we need to organize and mobilize to stop it.<BR/><BR/>I'm not so concerned about his picks as some on the left are. He needs the smartest people with some experience. If we eliminated people with Bush for eight years, then people with Clinton for eight more years, then Bush 1, there would be no one with any experience to pick from. I expected him to block out the PNAC crowd, which he has.<BR/><BR/>Obama likes to claim he's a blank slate, and people write on it what they want. I'm one that's never called him a consistent progressive, so I'm not as flustered. I expected him to staff the executive committee of the ruling class from, well, the ruling class and its operatives. I'm just not indifferent to the mix or the road to be taken. Finally, my guess is that Obama himself is still writing on that blank slate. What we need to do is get clear on what's needed at the base, then organize the popular power from below to make it so.<BR/><BR/>I don't think that's Kool-Aid. Never liked the stuff much anyway, even as a kid.Carl Davidsonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00215874972566616424noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7271382.post-74514020657361435712008-12-21T08:32:00.000-06:002008-12-21T08:32:00.000-06:00This is an interesting essay, full of thoughtful i...This is an interesting essay, full of thoughtful insights. But I think you've conflated your own views with those of Obama's. I've heard advocates of 'solidarity economics' speak at different conferences, and I've heard Obama, and this essay sounded a lot more like the former than the latter. The defeat of Clinton by Obama was a victory for the anti-war movement. And the defeat of McCain by Obama was a great victory pretty much for everyone. At the same time, with his rhetoric (and now his cabinet picks) Obama has made it clear that he also defeated those voices within the Democratic party to the left of him (Edwards, Kucinich, or even Richardson). He has not said anything much that could be construed as anti-war. He has made a few gestures to the 'masss-transit left', but seems constitutionally uninterested in calling attention to anyone very far down on the class ladder. And I think you've 'drunk the kool-aid' a bit by underestimating the gravity of the crisis we now face, and presuming that a few neo-new deal programs will set everything aright. The more radical proposals you offer will almost certainly draw direct resistance from the dominant chunk of the Obama coalition--the centrists he's surrounded himself with. Although I'm not altogether unsympathetic to your dispargment of the far left groups, I'm not entirely sympathetic either. Seattle was a crucial moment in the last ten years, brought to us in good part by anarchists. The US social forum was another key moment, ignored in your overview. But we'll need some sort of alignment of labor with community groups to get anywhere.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7271382.post-33687750871684284642008-10-10T10:53:00.000-05:002008-10-10T10:53:00.000-05:00Thank you for such an informative blog! From acro...Thank you for such an informative blog! From across the pondAnonymousnoreply@blogger.com