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Economy
In reply to the discussion: Weekend Economists' Harvest Ball September 21-23, 2012 [View all]bread_and_roses
(6,335 posts)65. "...Progressive Politics in their Historical Dimension"
http://www.commondreams.org/view/2012/09/22-1
I'm probably pushing things by quoting even that much, but do read the article if you have the time ...
on edit - oh whoa - how did I miss this? Too hot to quote or even link - just go to Black Agenda Report.
Published on Saturday, September 22, 2012 by Common Dreams
Recognizing the Importance of Goldwater, or Learning to Analyze and Practice Progressive Politics in their Historical Dimension
by Thomas S. Harrington
If you get a chance, you should take a look at the debate between Glen Ford and Michael Eric Dyson that aired as part of the September 7th edition of Amy Goodmans Democracy Now (video below). The extended interchange is valuable for many reasons.
The most immediately evident of these is that it breaks the silence, as Amy likes to say, on the enormous disdain that many liberals and progressives feel for Obama and his policies.
Rather than hew to the stylized analyses of the unknowable (the mans true nature and his true political goals) or, alternatively, how he bears up in the Republican mirrorFord concentrates on the much more straightforward task of asking a) What has he actually done? and b) What subset of Americans is in line to benefit most from his actions?
Faced with the Presidents glaring record of servitude to the most reactionary forces of our culturea record he does not even make the slightest effort to disputeDyson (think of the verbal torrents of Cornell West but with a dramatically reduced quotient of cognitive and lexical precision) does what so many liberals who like to think of themselves as oh-so-savvy customarily do: he mocks Ford for his lack of practicality and his supposed preference for pristine ideals over the messy work of achieving incremental progress in the real world of politics.
Recognizing the Importance of Goldwater, or Learning to Analyze and Practice Progressive Politics in their Historical Dimension
by Thomas S. Harrington
If you get a chance, you should take a look at the debate between Glen Ford and Michael Eric Dyson that aired as part of the September 7th edition of Amy Goodmans Democracy Now (video below). The extended interchange is valuable for many reasons.
The most immediately evident of these is that it breaks the silence, as Amy likes to say, on the enormous disdain that many liberals and progressives feel for Obama and his policies.
Rather than hew to the stylized analyses of the unknowable (the mans true nature and his true political goals) or, alternatively, how he bears up in the Republican mirrorFord concentrates on the much more straightforward task of asking a) What has he actually done? and b) What subset of Americans is in line to benefit most from his actions?
Faced with the Presidents glaring record of servitude to the most reactionary forces of our culturea record he does not even make the slightest effort to disputeDyson (think of the verbal torrents of Cornell West but with a dramatically reduced quotient of cognitive and lexical precision) does what so many liberals who like to think of themselves as oh-so-savvy customarily do: he mocks Ford for his lack of practicality and his supposed preference for pristine ideals over the messy work of achieving incremental progress in the real world of politics.
I'm probably pushing things by quoting even that much, but do read the article if you have the time ...
on edit - oh whoa - how did I miss this? Too hot to quote or even link - just go to Black Agenda Report.
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