I have been contending on local comment threads on our local daily newspaper's web site.
On any given article in the newspaper, online readers can offer their analysis and comments about the issues of the day.
A recent article, "reporting" on the formation of a new local "coalition" to seek "non-partisan" grassroots community cooperation, to deal with local economic, social, and, ultimately, of course, political issues, inspired me to respond today.
It's a doozy, actually, and provides a glimpse into the shifting parameters of struggle that we face, going forward. "Libertarian" Republicans, posing as "progressives", "independents", and revolutionary "anarchists".
Below the fold are links to the original article, and the web page for the organization it promotes. From the original article, you can access the comments, including mine, and response from others.
First, a word, if I may...
As anyone who has surfed such venues has no doubt noticed, the comments are almost always spammed with the most insane, vicious, weaseling right wing slurs, slanders and ad hominem, aimed at spinning any given topic away from rational discussion, and into seditious calls for civil war.
Sometimes these are somewhat more intellectual, or subtle in nature, heh...but the irrational spew is still pretty much the same. Right wing reactionary conservative fundamentalist line, desperately, hysterically seeking to thwart the popular democratic mandate.
Oh well. They aren't the only ones who comment, of course...although many who do attempt to engage in a more principled manner do tend to get buried in the spam, which can be pretty annoying.
Many have abandoned the effort, surrendering the arena to the right and those few stalwarts who stubbornly continue to verbally slug it out with reason, or who get baited into responding in kind, out of frustration, heh.
But the comment threads that get the most posts also get far more views than comments, so others are definitely out there, lurking, heh...
For those who are too lazy, demoralized, or busy to dig down and pursue the links, I've also included here the comment I posted, just in case you may be vaguely curious...
For background, let me just give you a few details first, though.
I live in a mostly rural area in southern Oregon, which is predominantly redneck Republican, although local Democrats have been narrowing the gap, registering far more new voters than the Republicans did, for the last election.
The local Democratic Party chair is an officer of a main local environmental group, which has won significant victories in the timber wars, in court, and is of course despised by the local right...but even more so because we just replaced a couple of conservative Republicans and Blue Dogs with progressive Democrats, as our district representatives, heh.
Timber and water issues are hot topics. This area is the original spawning ground for the first EarthFirst! cells and actions on forest defense, and recently, massive fish die offs in the Klamath River precipitated lawsuits by environmentalists and local Indian tribes, resulting in limits on irrigation to farmers, which "provoked" a fairly major, Big Ag astro-turf campaign to resist that government action, with PR hacks bussing in agro rednecks from all over, to posture and pose with their guns, seditious rhetoric, and explicit death threats against Indians in general, specific environmentalists involved in the issue, in specific, and any other "traitors" who might be inclined to support "teh commies".
Both of the only two local daily newspapers are owned by the Wall Street Journal, so you can imagine the "local" coverage of such matters, heh.
The organization this initial newspaper article is about sounds fairly reasonable, on the surface, and seeks to coopt much of the rhetoric that the left/environmentalist movement has been using for years now...
The headline made me look, heh, and some of the "story" line seemed inspiring, at first, sort of... but the organization being touted is clearly inspired by Libertarian seditionists, against "teh government", which I intuited pretty quickly, and confirmed by looking at their web page.
Regardless of what you may think about my comment in response, lol, you really should check out that organization's web page, for a clue about a new dimension in the strategy and tactics of the right, going forward, as they attempt to hunker down for protracted "grassroots" struggle, in the face of their absolute, total electoral defeat, which I think they recognize will be substantially compounded in 2010 and 2012.
Of particular note is the disingenuous co-optation of left rhetoric and program (eg marihuana legalization) which the "Libertarians" are so good at. The Libertarian Party is not our friend. It is the new face of fascism, and it's basically all the right has left, anymore, in terms of maintaining some semblance of credibility with substantial portions of a disaffected population, including even some Democrats, leftists and "anarchists", whose scenes they so insidiously seek to infiltrate and subvert.
They are pretty slick, and will be a principle influence that we will have to contend with going forward, no doubt.
All the more reason to purge the Blue Dogs, who have already so thoroughly infiltrated and discredited the Democratic Party, thus alienating and suppressing voter turnout and ushering in the right wing counter-revolutionary seizure of power, over these many years past.
(see my previous Diaries and comments, for further analysis on this subject)
Here's the links. You don't have to be local to post, so feel free to throw in your own comments there, should you feel moved to do so, heh.
Oh, one tip...under the original article, the comment thread starts with the last comment, and so on, backwards in the thread. But if you click through, to read any "full message", then you can further click back, to the first comment of the thread, to read them sequentially, as they appeared, which makes a lot more sense...
Web page for the organization the article is about (Jackson County Local Action Coalition)
(note the black star, a traditional symbol for anarchy, for which the "Libertarians" so falsely claim the mantle)
The initial local daily newspaper article, "reporting" on the formation of this "local" organization, with comment thread below it (Medord Mail Tribune)
Full Text of my Comment on the newspaper web page, responding to that article:
(in editing this post, I've added just a few slight embellishments that I wish I had included originally)
I for one am not interested in any coalition with right wing reactionary conservative fundamentalists, "Libertarians", or Republicans, I don't care what they want to call it.
This is not because I'm some kind of hard line "collectivist", dogmatic, doctrinaire leftist, who just can't get along in "America", lol.
I get along just fine, but these people have been screaming their heads off, lying their butts off, casting despicable slanders, insults and slurs, calling us "damn commies" and "satanic", and threatening to kill us all, for not agreeing with them.
I'm a Democrat, who believes in democracy, and I've seen the kind of "bipartisan" and "non-partisan" jive these freaks on the right bring. It's totally bogus, and it's all about getting their way, no matter what. "By any means necessary", including lying, cheating and stealing, and then bringing violence, when they don't get their way.
Now, when they've decisively, irrevocably lost, they are suddenly trying to make nice? I don't think so.
I don't want to "get along" with that. I want to see it gone. Enough weaseling!
Now they say they want to agree to disagree, and to move on, to deal with local issues that everyone can agree on. Sounds great, sounds reasonable, as if maybe it could be a good thing, a real change of heart.
But how can that be, when in the next breath they are talking about fighting the government over water rights? I'm certainly not going to oppose the scientists, environmentalists and politicians I helped to elect, who have made it clear that the water use must be reduced. There's no two ways about it.
I'm willing to help make sure that family farmers, who have depended on that water for their livelihood for a few generations, get the help that they need, to make a dignified transition to more sustainable practices, or a new livelihood.
Farming is hard, often dangerous work, and I use the products, and I respect them for that. I would gladly help them, and I already have, to the extent that I can. I know some of them. They got some of my tax dollars for relief, which I have no problem with.
But the Indians of this area have water rights too, and they've been here many, many more generations than we have. I am not going to join a coalition to steal their water, and kill off the fish, period.
And I'm not willing to help the big corporate agri-business to spread a jive, twisted propaganda line, about how these poor family farmers need the water, so they can grow potatoes and cows for McDonalds.
Big Ag has been ruthlessly squeezing family farmers out, and ripping them off with a completely contrived monopoly "market", and it is not a friend of family farmers, nor to building a healthy nation and economy, but an enemy...and I'm not going to help that agenda, in any way, shape or form.
Smaller, real family farms, yes, I'll help them to move forward, to go organic, sell locally, and reduce their water use by using appropriate green tech...Hey, breaking news! We're already doing that, and it's going very well, thank you very much, and everyone is welcome to join us. We have the most profitable farms in our region, because of it, and you can come to the farmers' market any time, to buy our produce, or to join this movement and learn how to do it too...any time.
We'll help you to find a new niche for your family, where they can make a decent living, without ripping off the Indians or killing all the fish.
Fight "teh government", to steal water that also belongs to the Indians and the fish? No freakin' way. The lines have been drawn, and we are NOT going back.
Same goes with the local timber workers. I'm glad to help build an alternative secondary value-added timber products industry, to keep the money in the local communities. "Teh Left" and envirionmentalists have been advocating and organizing that here for years, with considerable progress, locally. We are ready to roll, into the future.
It makes no sense at all, to send raw logs overseas. That was theft, to enrich Big Timber executives, leaving the rest of us in the lurch.
I'm definitely interested in seeing more local management and revenue from local natural resources. I don't like bloated, over-sized, corrupt, inefficient, beaurocratic government, especially when it's run by monopolistic corporations, telling us what to do, for their own profit, against the public interest, any more than anyone else.
But the answer to that is not to call for civil war, even in a "nice" way.
We're working on it, democratically, electorally, and especially after 2010 and 2012 we can expect to see some considerable changes in how our government operates, which will definitely include rooting out corruption, and improving our democracy, from the "top" to the "bottom".
That will be when the Blue Dogs ("conservative Democrats") and the Republicans are purged from all levers of power, at all levels. That will be when the progressive Democrats have a super-majority.
This is not going to be about "bi-partisan negotiation". It's going to be about seizing the power, democratically, to serve the people, instead of the super-rich elites.
This is going to be about democracy, instead of fascism.
More local democracy doesn't mean some bunch of local rednecks can "take a vote" to cut down all the trees, and kill all the salmon. Forget that. It's not going to happen, any more than we are going to bring back Jim Crow, or re-enslave women, or establish a theocracy.
More local autonomy, self reliance, and democratic process are all good things, that I support, and have been fighting for all of my life. These are integral parts of the left/environmental program that we have always advanced, and we have made substantial headway with that, locally, in material practice, already, and that is going to surge forward.
But these things are all subject to the broader national popular democratic consensus on national criteria and priorities. This is the USA, one nation, one people, not some Balkanized banana republic of local warlord ethnic enclaves of "religious" bigots.
Racism, sexism, religious chauvinism, eco-rape, corporate rip off and warmongering to enrich profiteers, etc., etc., are no longer politically correct in this great nation, and we are NOT going back.
Secession is not an option. If you don't like the USA, go somewhere else...but don't try to destroy it, or you will be destroyed. Serious business.
I will be on the front lines, fighting to move forward, into the 21st Century, even against some of my neighbors, if that's what it takes. I don't want civil war, but I will fight for my country, and don't you forget it.
I am wiling to help my neighbors to make the transition, to more sustainable, appropriate, alternative paradigms. I will give it everything I've got. I already have, and I will keep it up, to my last breath. I'm no quitter or wimp. I'm a fighter, and a winner, in case you haven't noticed. It's because of my huge love for people, and my country.
We can develop a secondary forest products industry that will keep the money in our communities. We can retool the mills, to handle the smaller diameter logs that will come from thinning and more limited harvests. This has already begun, no thanks to the right, or Big Timber, or freakin' "Libertarians", lol.
And we can find ways to help families find a new niche, as needed, to make a living, since there will not be the same volume of timber harvest and jobs in that industry, for a long, long time, if ever. Things change.
I'm cool with all that, and I've been advocating government funds, and some kick down from Big Timber, to make those things happen, for years. I'm willing to pay my fair share of taxes, especially for local public works projects, schools, debt relief, to save peoples homes and land, provide heathcare, whatever it takes...but I expect to see the super-rich, the big corporations and their executives and "investors", kicking in their fair share, also. They owe us, big time.
But start clear cutting old growth again, and kill off all the salmon? No way! Again, I will be on the front lines to stop that, no matter what you call your "coalition"...
People need to remember, that the reason the right started lying and slandering and screaming and threatening is because we have fundamental disagreements, over fundamental issues, and they have lost the debate on those issues.
We have discussed these issues 'til we're blue in the face, and we have researched it and taken it to court, and had elections. We won, and the right lost. Elections have consequences.
Trying to emulate the left, and copy our rhetoric and methods will only work if it's really sincere, for the same ultimate objectives, real democracy, within a real patriotic context, for justice and peace, to save the planet.
No amount of suddenly changing rhetoric and tactics and trying to make nice is going to change that. We are not going to forget, or forgive what has transpired. Only a change of practice, demonstrated in action, over time, will eventually be able to leave that all behind us.
We'll work with our neighbors, in good faith, on what needs to be done, to build and improve our communities, and to improve everyones' lives. We've already been doing that, for many years now. Indeed, that's why we won, and the right lost, and that trend is accelerating.
No fake new "Libertarian" organization is needed along these lines, many genuine ones are already in place, and everyone is welcome to join in the struggle to transform our economy and our society, democratically.
Just check in at the local food coop, and we'll hook you right up, no problem.
But it will be on our terms, our way, from now on, genuinely democratically, as part of a national program for the future, instead of some astro-turf fake grassroots corporate fascist PR hack "movement", constantly trying to go back, into the past.
We are NOT going back.
The super-rich are going to have to pay higher taxes, and no astro-turf jive is going to relieve them of that obligation.
Love it or leave it.