Interesting article on Gore's politics and why he endorsed Dean.

[caledesi]

With endorsement of Dean, Gore seeks to revive Democrats and contain political crisis

In the media commentary—most of it hostile—regarding former Vice President Al Gore’s endorsement of Howard Dean for the Democratic presidential nomination, various explanations have been given: personal animosity between Gore and the Clintons, Gore’s wounded psyche, a Machiavellian scheme to ensure defeat in 2004 so Gore can emerge as the Democratic savior in 2008, etc.

A host of essentially subjective and secondary issues have been brought forward—everything but serious questions of policy. This predictable response to Gore’s announcement only underscores the superficial and unserious approach of the media to all social and political questions.

Added to this is a pro-Bush bias. The media has been seeking to maneuver the Democratic nominating process to the advantage of those candidates least likely to raise any serious differences with the foreign and domestic policies of Bush and the Republicans. In the eyes of the media pundits, the rather conservative former governor of Vermont, who opposed the unilateral invasion of Iraq, is something of a wild card.

It is impossible to understand any significant political event simply at the level of personal and subjective motives. These come into play, but they are, in the end, entirely subordinate to more profound political and social issues.

link: http://www.wsws.org/articles/2003/dec2003/gore-d11.shtml

[Bill McBlueState]

1. this is a problem in the "fast-food" media, generally

Everything has to be explained in petty personal, quasi-psychologial terms. It would take away valuable advertising space and time to go in-depth about policy issues. As a result, candidates get boiled down to 1-dimensional caricatures, and people vote for a chimp because he somehow reminds them of themselves.

\rant

[w4rma]

6. Look who owns big media.

Which political party best supports the interests of the big buisnesses that own big media?

That is why, IMHO, big media is so pro-Republican, (especially FAUX).

[On the Road]

2. As Usual, WSWS is Brilliant

Look at this quote:

Gore’s decision to back Dean has the character of political triage aimed a saving the Democratic Party from self-destruction and reviving it as an instrument of bourgeois rule. He is among those representatives of American capitalism who are highly conscious of the danger of a mass movement against war and social reaction developing outside of the control of the bourgeois establishment....

I don't agree with WSWS's Marxist point of view, but their analysis is, as usual, spot on.

On Edit: I personally don't mind whether the country is under bourgeois control as long as decisions are made for the good of everyone. FDR was bourgeois. So were George Washington and Thomas Jefferson. But there's a big difference between them and GWB.

[caledesi]

3. Good post rf. eom

[bemildred]

8. Unify the party and avoid a debilitating primary fight?

What a great idea.
Good for Mr. Gore.

[Martin Eden]

9. the World Socialist Web Site...

...as usual has some keen insights, and, as usual, has its own agenda. Could it be world socialism?

a few paragraphs really stood out to me:

Gore’s decision to back Dean has the character of political triage aimed a saving the Democratic Party from self-destruction and reviving it as an instrument of bourgeois rule. He is among those representatives of American capitalism who are highly conscious of the danger of a mass movement against war and social reaction developing outside of the control of the bourgeois establishment and coming under the influence of anti-capitalist, revolutionary forces.

<snip>
The notion that any section of the Democratic Party can provide a genuine alternative to the policies of Bush and the Republicans is an illusion. The White House agenda of militarism and social reaction is not some accident, nor is it merely the whim of certain right-wing individuals. It is the response of American capitalism to insoluble contradictions and the objective necessities of a social system in crisis.

Any attempt to fashion such an alternative within the framework of bourgeois politics immediately comes up against the reality of a massive concentration of wealth and power in the hands of a financial oligarchy. Only an independent political movement based on the working class and armed with a socialist program can break the grip of this elite and open the road to peace, democracy and social equality.
<end>

In other words, Gore's motives in endorsing Dean is not to foster a real grassroots democratic movement, but to co-opt the Dean candidacy in an attempt to salvage the Democratic Party's relevance within the ruling oligarchy.

In this viewpoint the Democratic Party is essentially no different than the Republican Party, and therefore should be abandoned in favor of a truly socialist movement.

My problem is that the "bourgeois" represents a wide swath of America's middle class that will never support world socialism. The WSWS seeks to splinter the Democratic Party and replace its left wing with the Socialist Party.

I have no illusions about the Democratic Party -- it is indeed similar to the Republican on many levels. But there are substantial differences as well. A Democratic president's foreign policy would not be directed by neoconservatives, nor would industry lobbyists be posted in the EPA and other watchdog agencies.

The United States definitely needs major political change, but what the WSWS wants is a revolution that could only succeed after some major national catastrophe like another Great Depression. Perhaps if the Democratic Party is destroyed and the radical right wing agenda is allowed to wreak its havoc we will have such a catastrophe.

But the eventual outcome in such a scenario is a roll of the dice preceded by widespread suffering. Call me conservative, but I would much rather remake and rebuild the Democratic Party than buy into the agenda of the World Socialists.

And I'm not buying into the WSWS assessment of Gore either.

[0007]

15. Out in the open and no willy nilly BS

This article hits the nail on the head.

If this article came from your favorite source, you'd suck it up!

[Martin Eden]

16. My problem with the article ...

... is that it basically advoctes abandonment of the Democratic Party. IMO, that would be a disaster, unless we had nation-wide instant runoff voting.

I'd disagree no matter the source.

However, you are correct that I'm suspicious of the WSWS. Also, I'm not ready to cede that Gore is essentially a stooge for the ruling capitalist elite. Sure, he works from the inside of that system, but it is nearly impossible to effect change as a complete outsider.

I was very impressed by Gore's Earth in the Balance. Was that book a sham and a ruse?

[KoKo]

11. Good comment, Ribo. Once one get's past the Socialist Rhetoric the

article has some interesting insights into the split in the Dem Party.

I'm with you about not minding "...whether the country is under bourgeois control as long as decisions are made for the good of everyone."

I also agree with Martin Eden that there is more to Gore than this article states. One has to look at what he was about before he "hooked up" with Clinton to see the more complicated political views he had than being a "hawk" as the WSW article states.

But, I agree with WSW that we have much more serious problems than either the Dems or Repugs are addressing. Fundamental problems developing over wages and class in the US. The Socialists of course are hoping it falls in their lap to fix. Hopefully a revitalizing of the Dem Grassroots will be a better alternative.

[jwb48]

4. Why I support Dean

Well we can ponder till the cows come home about the real reasons Gore endorsed Dean, all this conflicted, tortured, psychobabble about his feud with Clinton, blah, blah, blah. Me, I'll just take him at his word. It seemed he was more excited about the people behind Dean than Dean himself. The Dean campaign had put together an energized grassroots movement of people who were willing to put time, talent, enthusiasm and money behind a belief that America belongs to its people, not its corporations. That's what attracted me to the campaign, not a flawless candidate, but a campaign that had all the right elements of being a winner. People. People like myself, who are willing to put aside petty, and even some not so petty differences to get our country back. People who don't want to live in a low-wage, greed-based, fear-controlled, dictatorship. As an African-American, I am aware and accutely sensitive to that type of environment, in the not to distant past it was called slavery.

The fight for our freedom is not in Iraq, Afganistan, Syria, Iran, North Korea, or anyplace else where GWB wants to pick a fight. The battle for our freedom is right here. And it won't be won by 140,000 of our young people taking pot shots from the people whose land we illegally occupy. Our freedom will be won by the millions of people like myself who can see where we are headed and who will march to the polls and exercise the most important priviledge we have left (before its too late).

So it really doesn't matter to much to me what other people think about why Gore endorsed Dean or even why I endorse Dean. There are other great people and great candidates in this race, and I am glad that in the end we will all work together. But today, Dr. Dean has put together the best team and that's what catches my eye. I WANT TO WIN!!!!

[Ardee]

5. Is winning a be-all end-all?

I want to change a corrupt system, reduce the bloated military budget, increase spending on social programs and repair the infra structure. I have no interest at all in the shallow and irelevent points you raise, sorry.

That Dean has a web site interests me not at all, that he seeks the white house by standing on the dead body of a real liberal, Paul Wellstone, sickens me. That his record as governor brands him as just another politico more responsive to corporate interests than the people he governs disqualifies him from consideration.

[KoKo]

12. Ardee, I would rather take a Dean who's raised money clean for his

campaign (or a Kucinich) than the rest of them with their Corporate funds and Party Hacks war chests.

Dean's "network" has been the first real effort we've seen to have the "People" take over campaign finance. That alone makes him a "stand out."

I don't think he's a Repug Lite. I think he's "quirky." And I also think he isn't so fixed in his views that he wouldn't THINK. Shrub is a puppet. I don't think Dean would be one. We might not agree with some of his decisions as Governor of Vermont, but he would be very far from a Lieberman or Bush.

[Ardee]

17. Not a hatefest

I respect the opinions of most people here at DU, excepting of course the very few who post diatribe, dismissively or hatefully. I do wonder why Deanistas who are otherwise shown to be thoughful and rational posters refuse to come to grips with Dean's political history?

Sorry, KoKo, but "quirky " doesnt cover it. I took the pains to research Deans governorship when he first appeared upon the national scene and will not support him because of this history. I wonder at the (possible) desperation of those who would reject a candidate with a history like Deans, the weakening of environmental protections for corporate cronies, the cutting of school funding, the abandonment of senior safety nets and the rest.

I have similar objections to Dean as I do with Bush and will wonder why others fail to note the obvious. It must be a sad and sorry commentary on the state of the dmeocratic party........

[glitch]

7. Think how powerful we would be if all the candidates followed Dean's

model, multiple huge grassroots movements, all eventually joining together with the primary winner.

That's where the real power lies, and that's why sniping at each other to tear down the other's base rather than building up all of our own makes us weaker.

[Ardee]

10. silence is not always golden

and your personal opinion of Howard Dean is not the mandatory party line.

Oncce again I see a Dean supporter so carried away with the mechanisms of Dean's candidacy that they overlook the facts of his political history.

What you call sniping, what some ,even more carried away than yourself call aiding the GOP, I see as a real desire to have a candidate both genuine and strikingly different from Bush. During the Bush regime we see, again and again, democrats voting for Bush doctrines, again and again we see democrats refusing to speak out against both Bush and the system that enables him. While Dean demonstrates anger, his history screams "same old deal, different wrapper".....

[KoKo]

13. Ardee, he supports "re-regulation" of Corporations. That's one big plus

for me. He also isn't promising "a chicken in every pot." I'm sick of hollow promises about job growth, equal opportunity for minorities, yadda, yadda, yadda that our Dem Candidates always promise, but can't deliver. We need some fundamental changes that aren't platitudes.

Whom do you support and why? I'm a Dean/Kucinich. And I don't think either of them is the "perfect candidate." But, I feel that they are heads above the others in that group as far as "independence." And "independence" to me is better than a Party Hack.

[Ardee]

14. whom do I support?

Well, I support a titular head of the Democratic Party who will put the emphasis back where it belongs. One who will help the democrats to regain the majorities in both houses. One who will reduce the bloated military budget and use the savings to fund education and social services. I support a candidate who will stump for a decent medical health insurance plan for all americans. I support the nominee who will restore sanity to our foreign policy.

Know where I might find one of these? Know also that I will not accept someone whose record belies his speeches. I am sick unto death of hypocracy and rule of the richest. I am voting for someone who will promise this and more, someone who knows ,as do I, that the system is corrupted and needs to be restored to balance.

Know, lastly, that I will accept four more years of Bush before I compromise my vote yet again! I say this knowing that this is just what it might take to awaken all of you..........all of you who sleep so well.

[newyawker99]

18. Hi jwb48!!

Welcome to DU!! :toast: