[Marxism] Sunday's driving practice [was: Stan Goff says "vote Ron Paul"; I say "no"]

[Joaquin Bustelo]

Eli writes, <<If you want to cast a "tactical" vote in the primaries, vote
for Dennis Kucinich, for heaven's sakes, a vote that not only is an antiwar
vote but simultaneously is an endorsement of single-payer health care and
various other things.>>

During yesterday's driving practice (she needs to log 40 hours to take the
test) I asked my daughter, who mostly lives with her mom but prefers Dad as
driving instructor, who she likes in the presidential sweeepstakes.

She said Obama, and then Edwards. She said "I guess I should like Clinton,
but I don't."

Why Obama, I asked, and she replied, without a second's hesitation, "Because
he is Black." What about his positions on the issues, I said, and she
couldn't articulate an explanation of them. Why Edwards? And she started
talking about how corporations have too much power, the war has to end and
so on. 

I think we make a mistake when we confuse positions with politics. Voting
for Kucinich because of his *positions* is a profoundly apolitical action.
Voting for Obama because he is Black is a profoundly political one in this
country. It may not be "right," and I'm convinced it won't produce the
results hoped for. But it is still profoundly political as a statement about
social relations and hierarchies in this country.

If it comes to that, it will be the first major political action by the
generation that came of age under the 9/11 hysteria, and it will be a
MAGNIFICENT one: FOR Obama, because until THIS century, you bastards
wouldn't let a Black person be president.

J.