Racing Form Politics

Many “progressive” (really, liberal) blogs, as well as the Democratic Party’s irregulars (like MoveOn.org, etc.) have ceased being places where issues are discussed or ideas for change put forward. If they were, the true story about Obama would be out: he’s not terribly progressive, except when compared to Republicans. More of that later.

No, what they’ve become is akin to handicappers. Far from issues, they are full of polling results, and what they mean. “Will Obama pick up support amongst men, or white women, or blue parakeets?”. Now, it’s all about who’ll win in November. This is intentional, as they know that Obama doesn’t really stand for what they’ve implied that he does, but they’ve become too caught up in elections to care any more about real political or social change. They’ve created a perception, but have been trying to keep people focused on elections and electability rather than on positions. This even after the 2006 Congressional elections, which were put forward as a referendum on the war. Voting for Democrats was voting for an end to the war. The Democrats won. The war goes on. Sufficient numbers of Democrats voted money down the sewer of the Iraq escapade every time the President asked for it.

The perception now is that voting for Obama will end the Iraq Occupation. The War Without End continued. The War Without End will continue, even if Obama does what he says in his platform. He’s committed to bringing troops home, but not all the troops. He is leaving the door open to engaging with other countries. If his recent love-song for Israel is any indication, he’ll continue the foreign policy tradition of supporting Israeli ethnic cleansing, and the response this policy has had in the Middle East and elsewhere for the past sixty-odd years. Moreover, he wants to move the War Without End east, to Afghanistan. History has evidently not taught him any more than the others involved in Afghanistan.

The War in Iraq has hardly been in evidence during the Obama push. Even good ol’ MoveOn, which started as an organization against the war, hasn’t much to say about the war. Indeed, they’ve joined the media in largely ignoring it. After all, they supported Kerry, who wanted to increase the troop levels in Iraq; Kerry was their peace candidate.

Whatever there might be that is admirable in Obama’s platform (there are some promising items, hard to get to, about transit and railways), the Endless War policy that started with Franklin D. Roosevelt will make them mere pipe-dreams. This war, and the Endless War policy which mandates a huge American military presence all over the globe cannot be sustained without making this country broke, and increasing the gulf between rich and poor. We have been on our way to becoming a banana republic for a long time now, and nothing Obama has to say is going to slow that down. Thanks to the “progressive” blogs, etc. these issues will not be mentioned, for fear of discouraging people from voting for Obama. It’s the race that’s important, and what it takes to win it. Instead of being voices for change, these folks have become touts and handicappers.

Thus, we see them become the political Daily Racing Form, discussing the chances of winning or losing, but unlike that venerable journal, Kos and This Modern World will likely hold you responsible if Obama doesn’t win because you don’t want to vote for someone who is not going to end the war and take on the troubles of the nation in a realistic way. You might vote Green or for Ralph, or for the SP or someone else entirely. You might not engage in the charade at all. By the way, even Green candidates are not immune from this Racing Form approach to politics, as can be seen from the interview with Green candidate Kat Swift can’t seem to get away from looking at numbers. Her remark about men over sixty voting is less than well thought out. The implication is that men over sixty are reactionary, though she may have meant something else. The point is, this had nothing to do with any issue, and shows a preoccupation with numbers. It may soon get to the point that, as Greens get elected they, too will be concerned about the horses in their stable and not about issues confronting the country. This shows a fundamental flaw in our electoral system which leads to a fundamental misunderstanding of the point of the politics of legislatures.

Because of a two-party system, we tend to see the possession of the levers of governmental power as the goal for any party. In fact, it isn’t always necessary to be in the highest governmental offices to have influence. That is to say, a party can still influence the outcome of events even when it doesn’t form a government (as in a parliamentary system) or doesn’t have a clear majority of seats in any sort of legislature. Votes are still necessary to pass legislation, and a concerted effort on the part of a minor party can influence legislation. Not only that, such a voice, representing a lot of people, will be heard on issues.

A party’s influence can be felt outside of Congress and the Presidency, too. The fact of receiving votes is a sign of the influence of the party. That, more than electing candidates is why ballot access is so important. This is one of the significant ways of registering support for issues and platforms. This is also where the preoccupation with the Racing Form has led the liberal blogs to be reactionaries, actually stifling debate. They have in the past supported Democrats’ efforts to keep Greens or Ralph Nader off the ballot, for fear of “dividing the vote” or Nader “stealing votes”. Again, the handicapper’s mentality. It’s all really a horse race, and in the end, issues and ideas are not as important as winning. Winning in the current system (which the liberal bloggers don’t seem to have much argument with, now that they are essentially units of the Democratic Party), which means supporting candidates who need to be supported by the corporate elite, has become much more important than the kind of change needed to address the problems of the country. New ideas are unwanted, no matter how badly needed.

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