[R-G] Rick Wilhelm on John Kerry

[Carrol Cox]

Connexions wrote:
> 
> >
> >>Got a better idea? I'm all ears.
> >>Lapwing
> >
> >I know you are all ears, which is why I value you and your contributions
> >to this list, irregardless of where you are coming from exactly.
> >
> >On this Kerry stuff, in a short sentence, we can't break the political
> >monopoly of the two parties and the whole political system by respecting
> >the very same system. We need something independant of not just two
> >parties, but of the whole (s)electoral machinery.
> >
> >--
> >Macdonald Stainsby
> 
> The last movement in this country to attempt independence ended at Appomatox.
>                   CJ

There have been several since. The one you are thinking of was the
abolitionist movement, which (though unpopular) caused so much fuss that
it provoked the founding of the Republican Party _and_ scared the
slavedrivers shitless, so when Lincoln was elected the South stupidly
rebelled. It was one of the more successful "independent movements" in
the history of the world. Our (non-electoral) movements of the 50s/60s
(civil rights and anti-war movement) were pretty successful too. We
broke Jim Crow. We innaugurated the gay/lesbian movement. We were
responsible for making Nixon the most liberal president of the second
half of the 20th century -- not because we elected him or he was a good
guy but because we scared him shitless. 

We almost got the Equal Rights Amendment through, but we were losing
force by that time and falling into the error that CJ seems to have
fallen for: instead of continuing to raise hell, the forces behind that
drive turned to electoral politics and lobbying.

Just how successful we were can be measured by the frantic efforts of
the media & both the DP & the RP ever since to minimize what we
accomplished.

There has never been any major reform gotten in the U.S. _except_ as the
result of large NON-electoral actions.

Carrol

P.S. Oh yes. And  in November of 1969 we may have saved the world. The
Nixon Administration had about decided to use nuclear weapons against
Chinese installations in North Vietnam. The  size and militancy of the
November Moratorium caused them to change their mind.