Monday, May 2, 2016

A Little Perspective on Pennsylvania's Primary

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From a comment on the NY Times site recently:

 James Dusel says:
"The elephant in the room is something we all tread so delicately around, namely that the church social set of the African American community has sold its soul and its vote all too cheaply to a couple [the Clintons] that has wreaked considerable damage upon their community. Martin Luther King would be appalled at the ease with which Mr. Clinton seduced that community in the first place and the entitlement with which Mrs. Clinton enjoys its continued devotion. All too often King's name is invoked as a benevolent saint from the distant past rather than as the democratic socialist he came to be in his later years. In 1966 King said this to his associates: "Now this means that we are treading in difficult waters, because it really means that we are saying there is something wrong with capitalism. There must be a better distribution of wealth, and maybe America needs to move toward a democratic socialism." That was in 1966, when income inequality in the nation was in no way comparable to the horrid inequality of the present day. This theme found even more explicit expression in "The evils of capitalism are as real as the evils of militarism and evils of racism". And again, "Call it democracy, or call it democratic socialism, but there must be a better distribution of wealth within this country for all God's children." King saw that the struggle must proceed on all fronts: against racism, of course, but also, and equally against militarism, and finally against the egregious income inequality engendered by capitalism. Were King still with us, there would be little doubt with which candidate he would ally himself. He would certainly not stand with the candidate who surrounds herself with Wall Street profiteers, war criminals, those who follow solely for the sake expected advancement, and those who confuse the most audacious influence peddling scheme in America's history for the Promised Land."

Yeah, what he said...

Here's a wonderful comment from Yanis Varoufakis sitting in Heathrow recently and reflecting on the difference between traveling as a government minister after having traveled with the hoi polloi most of his life:

“how readily I could forget that which my leftwing mind had always known: that nothing succeeds in reproducing itself better than a false sense of entitlement.”

I'll wager his level of self awareness in this regard is the exception . I recall an old TV show intro: "Would YOU like to be queen for a day?!"

Wull, yeah.

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