A brief comment in the midst of the overflowing analysis of the US midterm elections. Sadly (maybe not!) the cynics among have been proven right after the ‘Change we can’ election of 2008: things seem to be even more fucked up in 2010. However, opinion is divided over whether it is more of the same, with poor working class voters systematically excluded from election processes while two parties of managers,owners and professionals fight it out – so an insightful analyis from Richard Seymour at Lenin’s Tomb. Similarly, but from a more specifically economic angle, Rick Wolf identifies a long-term from the 1970s in which things have been very, very good for the small group of owners of capital while wages have flatlined since then. (That confirms my own anecdotal experience of the USA as a country comprised of islands of extreme privilege surrounded by an ocean of systemic poverty, backed up by Ken Surin’s analysis of the US as a third world country that ‘succeeded’.) But both analyses suggest another possibility, namely the politics of decline. Deep down, the gut sense seems to be that the everyday situation is progressively, slowly, inexorably getting worse for most people. So you get Obama back in 2008 capturing a desire to recover a fading dream, the Tea Party seeking to recover ‘America for Americans’ and so on. A backward-looking utopia is also deeply reactionary. Not only do they clearly indicate a sense that the Golden Age is past (however contructed it might be), but their persistent failure and bitter disappointment is also part of the package.
Actually, I’m suprised someone hasn’t decided to blame the Soviet Union. Not for secretly implanting Obama in the White House, but for getting itself dismantled. Those were the good old days, two superpowers threatening each other, the USA the leader of the West etc etc. Damn the fucking USSR: now they are gone, the US has lost its way.
5 November, 2010 at 10:43 pm
I just joined the American Green Party yesterday. Although according to that Facebook Quiz I’m an anarchist. And I do believe anarchy is the only future…
5 November, 2010 at 11:46 pm
American greens???
6 November, 2010 at 8:42 pm
Gramsci says in his Prison Notebooks that ‘the starting-point of critical elaboration is the consciousness of what one really is, and is “knowing thyself” as a product of the historical process to date which has deposited in you an infinity of traces, without leaving an inventory’. Said says that ‘the only available English translation inexplicably leaves Gramsci’s comment at that, whereas in fact Gramsci’s Italian text concludes by adding, “therefore it is imperative at the outset to compile such an inventory”’. This is hardly compatible with the production of knowledge as power ‘with definite interests in the Orient’ even if ‘one belongs to a part of the earth with a definite history of involvement in the Orient since almost the time of Homer’. Antarctic anarchists were privileged in their freedom away from the stench of power politics that create not only the consolidation of power in the hands of a few but the debris of corruption meaning decrepit streets, public services in a cycle of corruption feeding off itself in disservice to the public. If this is democracy, may as well be antarctic anarchists.
6 November, 2010 at 8:49 pm
Antarctic anarchists – brilliant!
5 November, 2010 at 11:46 pm
Or do you mean ‘American’ as in its proper usage, referring also to Canada, Mexico, Brazil etc etc?
6 November, 2010 at 12:44 am
Yup, exactly. That is why I make it a habit of using US American. Its pretty simple.
5 November, 2010 at 11:48 pm
yeah I didn’t know they existed either. They seem to think they’re quite successful… click on the link on my facebook page.
6 November, 2010 at 12:31 am
Here’s the bla
http://www.gp.org
Company Overview:The Green Party of the United States is a federation of state Green Parties. Committed to environmentalism, non-violence, social justice and grassroots organizing, Greens are renewing democracy without the support of corporate donors. Greens provide real solutions for real problems. Whether the issue is universal health care, corporate globalization, alternative energy, election reform or decent, living wages for workers, Greens have the courage and independence necessary to take on the powerful corporate interests. The Federal Elections Commission recognizes the Green Party of the United States as the official Green Party National Committee. (read less)
The Green Party of the United States is a federation of state Green Parties. Committed to environmentalism, non-violence, social justice and grassroots organizing, Greens are renewing democracy without the support of corporate donors. Greens provide real solutions for real problems. Whether the issue is universal health care, corporate globalization, alternative energy, election reform or decent, living wages for workers, Greens have the courage and independence necessary to take on the… (read more)Mission:10 KEY VALUES:
1. Grassroots Democracy
2. Social Justice
3. Ecological Wisdom
4. Nonviolence
5. Decentralization
6. Community-based Economics
7. Feminism
8. Respect for Diversity
9. Personal Responsibility
10. Future Focus / Sustainability
6 November, 2010 at 12:55 am
so therefore it isn’t just america but they seem to think they’ve won positions all over america in the senate elections, particularly in California. I’m a bit confused – I didn’t know they existed and I didn’t know you could vote in america for anything other than repubicbla, democrat or maybe an independent.
6 November, 2010 at 1:01 am
Um there are plenty of third parties, they just are not viable because of the legal and social roadblocks put before them by the 2 parties. Socially, by that I mean, major networks exclude 3rd party candidates from televised debates. Check out politics1.com for more info.
6 November, 2010 at 12:46 am
Fortunately here in God’s great country of Texas we do not have to register with a party, not even for the primaries. Fortunately, the Libertarian Party usually has candidates in nearly every election.
6 November, 2010 at 1:29 am
One of the points about the Lenin’s Tomb piece is that there is systematic exclusion of such parties from the national, decision-making process. I have always been struck my the way that at a grass-roots level great things happen in the USA, but that there are systemic filters that block those grass-roots activities from ever making a national impact. As you say, RofA, ‘the legal and social roadblocks put before them by the 2 parties’