The Proletariat

I feel like I deserve a shirt, I Survived Blog Bunker. As you can see from my talking points, socialism was not on the list of topics I was expecting. While I certainly do not mind defending “socialism”, I wish I had a heads up on it before hand.

We talked about socialism, Nader, spoiling, ballot access, and talking white.  Overall a decent compromise on topics.

Socialism: The big idea I was trying to get across is socialism = economic democracy. The American  experience of democratic rights stops at the workplace.  While not necessarily “mainstream” , I do not see this as radical by any means. I was actually surprised when he said I was the first socialist he ever met, like I was an historical relic of some sort.

Nader: I was taken back by his disdain for Nader. He was offended by the “talking white” comment. The point I was trying to make was if Nader said “talking corporate”, the corporate media would have ignored the story.

Spoiling: I think I made my point with the “slave plantation” metaphor.  In short, one can only argue that Nader spoiled in 2000 if you believe voters are slaves belonging to the duopoly, rather than freemen making rational political choices. All those Nader voters “spoiled” because they had the audacity to leave the Democratic planation.

Ballot Access: The point I was trying to make was we have a separation of “church and state”, why not also have a seperation of “party and state”.  I used the experience of Green Party members in Illinois as an example. In the recent primary they were told they had run out of Green Party ballots. Some members found ballots in the trash, and under registration papers. When the state party selected candidates to run for office the Illinois Election Commission took them off the ballot.  This is just one example of obstacles the duopoly puts up to keep third parties off the ballot. There are two fundamental ways to suppress the vote; put up voter obstacles and put up candidate obstacles. While Democrats are the first to cry about voter obstacles such as voter ID, they are the first ones to put up voter obstacles through ballot access laws.

I remember right after the US Congress surrendered their constitutional obligation with the very real consequence of Bush sending troops into Iraq, listening to Yellow Ribbon time and time again. It is by far one of my favorite Utah Phillips songs.

Utah Phillips was a great American and communist. No man probably better symbolizes communism - anarchist socialism - than Utah Phillips.  He was an unapologetic Woobly for all of his life. Here he is singing Yellow Ribbon.

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