[Marxism] YADL (Yet another disillusioned liberal)

[John]

On Wed, 2009-04-01 at 17:16 -0400, Michael Smith wrote:
> On Wed, 1 Apr 2009 13:38:14 -0700 (PDT)
> milongonsinga <milongonsinga at yahoo.com> wrote:
> 
> > At this point, [the Obama 'movement' is] much better than the Bush movement.

I wonder if milongsinga read the post yesterday where the right wing
blogger was celebrating Obama's Afghanistan/Pakistan policy.

I think it's true. Obama is much better than Bush - much better at
getting things done, much better at conducting war without raising too
much opposition, much better at softening the blow when people lose
their jobs.

In New Zealand we've just (last November) had the traditionally
conservative National Party elected after a decade of Labour Party rule.
In the 80s Labour leapfrogged over National to enact the neo-liberalism
that the long serving Nats couldn't bring themselves to do. They were
much better at it for a lot of reasons, not least of which was the fact
that the union movement rolled over. They didn't want to do anything to
upset "our" government. By the time the Nats were reelected, the unions
had been gutted by the neoliberal reforms and couldn't effectively fight
the next round of attacks when National were reelected. And the same
thing happened when Helen Clark's Labour government got in - no more
neo-liberal attacks - they'd already been completed. It's the same old
same old as they say.

Sure, the 1984 Labour government did some good things - decriminalised
homosexuality for example. But they also massively weakened the left. In
the long run, we'd have been better off without the Labour Party and
with a stronger left.

I don't believe the election of Obama will open a significant window of
opportunity for the left in the US. I hope I'm wrong.
Cheers,
John