Tuesday, November 14, 2006
Letter to Joshua Frank
Below is a letter written to Joshua Frank in response to his article entitled " It's 2004 All Over Again . . . " Nothing that I have seen in the days following the elections, including Rumsfeld's resignation, has changed my mind about the socio-political situation in the country and what will have to happen for progressive change to happen here. Considering how prolific a writer Mr. frank has been, I thought I would get a more sanguine response other than a message thanking me for writing. My guess is that although Mr. Frank clearly knows what is up with the two party duopoly, he still cannot quite bring himself to see what the utlimate implications are. As I've mentioned before in previous blog entries, the crisis within global Capitalism in general, and American Capitalism in particular. It will ultimately lead to an explosion. In the next few months to a year the Democrats will be exposed for what they are; the ruling class's B-Team. As such, they will simply deal with aesthetics rather than a real change in course whether it has to do with Iraq or the ongoing economic race to the bottom U. S. workers are in the thick of. Eventually, we'll see either civil war or revolution in the streets in this United States of America.
Dear Mr. Frank,
I just finished reading your article on the DV website and I could not agree with you more. I have been reading your pieces for some time now and I think with this piece in particular you really hit the nail right on the head when you accuse the Liberal intelligencia of covering their corporate subsidized asses rather than call a spade a spade. I have long since (from the beginning of the Clinton years at the latest) gotten wise to the game of the Democratic Party. Its role, much like that of what in the electrical business we call an "explosion proof fitting" which dampens electrical sparks in volatile conditions (such as in an auto body shop), is to dampen and derail movements from below. Otherwise, revolutionary sparks could lead to an explosive revolution and the overturning of the now clearly obvious rot at the center of the Capitalist system. The system will not make it out of the 21st century. The question is will humanity not make it out with it. Things do not look to peachy as it stands now.
I would add that I think part of the problem with liberals, in addition to what you mentioned in your article, is that deep down they understand that at this point, real change in this country which assuredly means overthrowing the rule of Capital is likely, ala Mao, only going to come from the barrel of a gun. For obvious reasons, this is something they fear and I fear also because of the likely enormous bloodshed. However, paraphrasing what someone once said, if you close all avenues to peaceful change, then all that remains are violent ones. Again, Please do not read me wrong, I am not so much advocating change through violent means as I simply recognize we've been hemmed in really good. Now we'll have to fight and essentially Iraqify this place if we and likely the rest of humanity hope to see the other side of the 21st century. I believe the 60's were probably the last chance in this country to change things relatively peacefully. Things have gone way too far down that slippery slope at this point and the ruling class understands that. This is why it has braced itself for the violent upheavals that will inevitably come (perhaps afer the "pop" in the real estate bubble) by putting the finishing touches on the fascist/police state.
As a person of color I, as well as other people of color, have never really been allowed a permanent seat at te table of American prosperity. What Katrina exposed, other than the apparently worsening effects of global warming, was this very fact. This is why it did not surprise me in the least when in numerous newscasts, black folks were referred to as "refugees." From the very founding of this country when African slaves were calculated to represent 2/3 persons, there has been an unspoken but evident truth within the mainstream that we are not Americans; we are a people without a country. Thus, abandoning us to the whims of the fates, to borrow a bit from Greek mythology, came easy to the rulers, who may have also seen it as a convenient backdoor pogrom much like, I suspect, many white folks. I speak of all of this only as way of explaining my next point. That is, people of color in this country, and studies have bore this out, in general have not seen this country as the shiny city on a hill; a beacon to the world. We never could afford to. This why people of color in this country have always been in the thick of progressive change and why by and large, except for some sellouts (think Condosleeza and Colin cancer here) never bought into the bit about spreading democracy or eliminating WMDs. We saw it as the Willie Hortinization of a whole country!
All I can say is keep on hitting the Fat Democats. If by some miracle a third party presidential candidate could get past the grossly unfair ballot placement laws, raise enough bread, survive the Diebold voting machines, stave off capital flight, a military coup or an assassination attempt, this country might have chance.
Peace, Q
Dear Mr. Frank,
I just finished reading your article on the DV website and I could not agree with you more. I have been reading your pieces for some time now and I think with this piece in particular you really hit the nail right on the head when you accuse the Liberal intelligencia of covering their corporate subsidized asses rather than call a spade a spade. I have long since (from the beginning of the Clinton years at the latest) gotten wise to the game of the Democratic Party. Its role, much like that of what in the electrical business we call an "explosion proof fitting" which dampens electrical sparks in volatile conditions (such as in an auto body shop), is to dampen and derail movements from below. Otherwise, revolutionary sparks could lead to an explosive revolution and the overturning of the now clearly obvious rot at the center of the Capitalist system. The system will not make it out of the 21st century. The question is will humanity not make it out with it. Things do not look to peachy as it stands now.
I would add that I think part of the problem with liberals, in addition to what you mentioned in your article, is that deep down they understand that at this point, real change in this country which assuredly means overthrowing the rule of Capital is likely, ala Mao, only going to come from the barrel of a gun. For obvious reasons, this is something they fear and I fear also because of the likely enormous bloodshed. However, paraphrasing what someone once said, if you close all avenues to peaceful change, then all that remains are violent ones. Again, Please do not read me wrong, I am not so much advocating change through violent means as I simply recognize we've been hemmed in really good. Now we'll have to fight and essentially Iraqify this place if we and likely the rest of humanity hope to see the other side of the 21st century. I believe the 60's were probably the last chance in this country to change things relatively peacefully. Things have gone way too far down that slippery slope at this point and the ruling class understands that. This is why it has braced itself for the violent upheavals that will inevitably come (perhaps afer the "pop" in the real estate bubble) by putting the finishing touches on the fascist/police state.
As a person of color I, as well as other people of color, have never really been allowed a permanent seat at te table of American prosperity. What Katrina exposed, other than the apparently worsening effects of global warming, was this very fact. This is why it did not surprise me in the least when in numerous newscasts, black folks were referred to as "refugees." From the very founding of this country when African slaves were calculated to represent 2/3 persons, there has been an unspoken but evident truth within the mainstream that we are not Americans; we are a people without a country. Thus, abandoning us to the whims of the fates, to borrow a bit from Greek mythology, came easy to the rulers, who may have also seen it as a convenient backdoor pogrom much like, I suspect, many white folks. I speak of all of this only as way of explaining my next point. That is, people of color in this country, and studies have bore this out, in general have not seen this country as the shiny city on a hill; a beacon to the world. We never could afford to. This why people of color in this country have always been in the thick of progressive change and why by and large, except for some sellouts (think Condosleeza and Colin cancer here) never bought into the bit about spreading democracy or eliminating WMDs. We saw it as the Willie Hortinization of a whole country!
All I can say is keep on hitting the Fat Democats. If by some miracle a third party presidential candidate could get past the grossly unfair ballot placement laws, raise enough bread, survive the Diebold voting machines, stave off capital flight, a military coup or an assassination attempt, this country might have chance.
Peace, Q
