POLITICS
... Antifa, who embarrass themselves – and the Left in general – through their incompetence, is well known. To rule out the armed struggle in all cases would be incorrect; but Antifa’s street fighting, and the fact that they tend to lose in the street fighting, is an embarrassment. Guevara was right – ‘the revolution is not an apple; you have to make it fall’. But America, clearly, is not ripe. Even the meanest Trotskyite knows that brawling in the streets brings the Left into disrepute, and lowers politics to the level of thuggery idolised by the alt-right. It is necessary to work within institutions, affect real progress – then liquidate everyone who disagrees with you. Attempting liquidation without first attaining power? Amateur error. This is of course not to endorse those views, but to show that even the Far-Left should know better. I would, however, hesitate to associate Antifa imbecility with no-platforming. No- platforming is a perfectly understandable response to intolerance; and before you start bleating about ‘free speech’, bear in mind that it entitles you only to air your views – not to be invited to share them at a university. Need I remind you of the Milo Yiannoplous debacle, where we almost invited that tawdry provocateur to address the Economics Society. I think, and said at the time, that the College made the correct decision in preventing such an invitation being issued, and I think that later events have vindicated me in that view. This is not to say that all no-platforming is justified, but to compare it to street-fighting is hysterical. To try and return to the issue at hand: Trump has not, I think you’ll agree, had the best start in office, what with the Affordable Care Act (ACA) kerfuffle, and now appears to be doubling down by firing the person in charge of investigating his links to Russia, which is bad optics whatever you think of the charge. There is a school of thought that says that the best thing to do now is precisely nothing: to allow Trump to continue making mistakes until his inevitable defeat in 2020/ the revolution. It is an attractive view – doing nothing always is. This does not change the fact that it is wrong. The maxim must never be forgotten that leaders come and go, but only the people are immortal. It is not enough to get rid of Trump at a later date; his policies must be opposed now. If he has his way over the ACA, people will die. Not famous people, not important people, but people none the less. These are the people whom the Left, if it has any claim at all to legitimacy, must represent; and to see more and more of the Democratic party decide that these people should be abandoned for pastures new is heart-breaking. There must be no accommodation with Trump. There must be no deals with Trump. There must be total, absolute opposition to Trump, to his cronies and to the siren songs of neo- liberalism on the right, accelerationism on the Left and pessimism the world over. The people united are the strongest force on earth, and it is up to the Left to realise this.
I would appreciate it if you did not attempt to tie me to the dumpster fire that was the Clinton campaign
Joseph
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