Susan Sarandon and the Berniacs Who Wanna Watch the World Burn

[cloudythescribbler]

61. sarandon's remark harkens back to many earlier statements, like Leonard Bernstein in '68 ...

... suggesting that the election of Nixon would bring about the 'revolution'. It is a meme I call "radical perversity"

We all know how well that turned out in the case of Nixon (Jimmy Carter was hardly the revolution ...).

Then in 2004, highly regarded Marxist historian Gabriel Kolko wrote in Counterpunch how re-electing W Bush would promote a less "sustainable" imperialism than Kerry.
http://www.counterpunch.org/2004/09/11/elections-alliances-and-the-american-empire/

This kind of thinking, much more sophisticated in the case of Kolko, is the absolute opposite of what any radical who wants to build a mass progressive movement in the US needs to embrace. Even as a more radical vision is put forward in the midst of union organizing or election work for someone like Bernie Sanders, ANY decent grassroots organizer knows that "radical perversity" is a dead end, not only as a matter of principle but also as a matter of political exigency. It is the view of those who have little grassroots 'feel', who put what's inside their head over what goes on in the world -- a form of "idealism" in the political confusion sense.

It is however an excellent tool for illustration, for trying to convince folk that at least in swing states, it's more important to vote to stop trump than anything else on election day

I do respect (though I disagree with) those who argue that in getting people to vote for a candidate like Obama, or like Hillary Clinton if she's nominated, or for that matter like Kerry, is misleading people into the jaws of neoliberalism, when you need to earn the deeper respect of those you organize for your 'principles'. But to prefer the worse over the better, so as to promote a radical vision, or "radical perversity" is simply wrong AND stupid