[Marxism] the newest Democrat - another supporter of war, oligarchy and torture

[Dennis Brasky]

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> Empire Burlesque - Chris Floyd
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> The Bolter: Specter Spectacle Hides Deadly New Folly in Terror War<http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/empire_burlesque/~3/CUnNk17PP6M/1752-the-bolter-specter-spectacle-hides-deadly-new-folly-in-terror-war.html>
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> Posted: 29 Apr 2009 06:12 AM PDT
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> clip --
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> So the Democrats have yet another supporter of aggressive war, oligarchy,
> authoritarianism and torture in their Senate ranks. Wow, that will certainly
> shake up the political landscape in Washington! It looks like the promised
> New Jerusalem of hope and change has well and truly arrived at last.
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> The chattering classes are all, well, a-chatter with the cosmic
> significance of the switcheroo by the aptly named Arlen Specter from the
> Republican faction of the imperial court to the Democratic faction. The
> late-life conversion of this greasy, cadaverous bagman apparently heralds
> not only a filibuster-proof majority for the Democrats
> <http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/29/us/politics/29specter.html>(once they
> are joined by that guy who used to be on Saturday Night Live), but also the
> potential death of the entire Republican Party<http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/29/us/politics/29specter.html>!
> Who knew that little old Arlen -- who has been obediently toting
> Establishment water since he devised the "single bullet theory" for the
> Warren Commission (one of the first great instances of "magical realism" in
> modern fiction) -- was such a linchpin of the American political system?
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> The reaction to Specter's turning of his blood-spattered coat (or rather,
> his *re*-turning, as he began his political life as a Democrat) has been
> marked by the total amnesia that is the chronic affliction of our dozy, cozy
> media mandarins. The idea that Specter will vote in lockstep with the
> Democratic leadership's wishes, thus providing a "filibuster-proof"
> majority, is, of course, ludicrous, and flies in the face not only of
> Specter's own extensive (and deeply conservative) legislative record, but
> also the record of the current Democratic Party in the Senate. They can't
> even get "real" Democrats to vote their way on every issue. (Nor should we
> want them to; mindless factional conformity is hardly something to aspire to
> -- although our media analysts seem to think it's the cat's meow.)
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> As for Specter's bolting presaging the death of the GOP, what can one say?
> This is a level of political analysis worthy of a 12-year-old who just
> started watching CNN for the first time a few months ago. Backed by the
> nation's wealthy elite and most powerful corporations, in control of
> statehouses and city halls across the land, buttressed by lavishly funded
> think tanks, political operations and a vast network of partisan media
> outlets -- and supported by tens of millions of ordinary citizens -- the
> Republican Party is not going to "die" or wither away anytime soon. Any more
> than the Democratic Party "died" after the much-larger wipeout it suffered
> in the Reagan landslide of 1984, or the so-called "Republican Revolution" of
> 1994. If the Republican Party didn't "die" in 1964 or1944, when it was
> thrust much farther to the margins than it is now, it is not about to expire
> or even become irrelevant in the imperial politics of our day.
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> Anyway, wasn't it just a few years ago we were talking about a "permanent
> realignment" of American politics to the Right, under the unbreakable,
> unshakeable strategies of the great helmsman, Karl Rove? Such "permanent
> realignments" generally have a short shelf-life. But it seems our
> progressive triumphalists are just as giddily oblivious of history as their
> Bushist predecessors.
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> And where does the idea that a high-ranking politician switching sides
> sounds the death knell of a party come from? Have our savvy analysts never
> heard of, say, Phil Gramm? Ben Nighthorse Campbell? Richard Shelby? Or even
> the man who was wounded with John Kennedy by Specter's "magic bullet," John
> Connally? All of these prominent Democrats sidled over to the Republican
> trough -- but the Democratic Party hardly died because of it.
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> full -
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> http://chris-floyd.com/component/content/article/1752-the-bolter-specter-spectacle-hides-deadly-new-folly-in-terror-war.html
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