Let joy be unconfined! Blair is gone. John Howard is gone. A Paul-Kucinich ticket, or (less preferably) a Kucinich-Paul ticket, looks increasingly plausible regardless of whom either party nominates. And not only is Putin is easily victorious, but the neocons can only object by siding with the Communist Party. At the time of writing, Andrei Lugovoi, victim of the neocon lynch mob and so quite unable to receive a fair trial, is almost certain to enjoy parliamentary immunity.
So roll on the result of the referendum in Venezuela. If Tony Blair didn’t need a term limit, then nor does a man who has never launched a war against anywhere, never mind on a wholly false prospectus and on the orders of a clique of deranged old Trots on both sides of the Atlantic, joined on this side by deranged old Stalinists.
Speaking of whom, following Fidel Castro’s nomination to contest next month’s National Assembly elections, when is anyone going to ask why Bolivarians in Venezuela and elsewhere feel any need for an alliance with Cuba?
There is exceedingly little common ground between Castro and people who, in British terms, are just Old Labour Left if that, complete with an essentially paleoconservative motivation when it is properly analysed: they just want to harness the full power of the State in order conserve their national sovereignty and their distinctive (Catholic-derived) culture, in close connection with other good conservative things such as family life, against the utterly anti-conservative ravages of global capitalism and against the systems towards which capitalism drives its despairing victims. And within that, they want every household to enjoy the base of real property from which to resist both over-mighty commercial interests and an over-mighty State.
The ridiculous American blockade of Cuba has made the regime there an object of the sympathy of numerous people who should know better. And, due to that blockade’s combination with the neocon attitude to Bolivarianism (as to other humane, inclusive, Christian-based ideologies such as pan-Slavism and pan-Arabism), those people are being made to include the Bolivarians (like the pan-Slavists and the pan-Arabists).
There need be no expanding “Axis of Evil”, no new Cold War as dreamt of by the neocons so that their lives can make sense again. Instead, there must be an Axis of Hope, an Axis of Peace, from Moscow to Minsk, to Belgrade, to Tehran, to Damascus, to Caracas and other Latin American capitals, to London, Paris, Berlin and all the capitals of Europe and of the old Commonwealth, and to Ron Paul’s Washington.
A Paul-Kucinich ticket, or (less preferably) a Kucinich-Paul ticket, looks increasingly plausible regardless of whom either party nominates.
ReplyDeleteReally? And do you think they'd have a cat's chance in hell of winning?
Kucinich has pretty much said he'd do it - see a previous post. And they could make life very difficult indeed for Clinton and Giuliani alike across the economically populist, morally and socially conservative, geopolitically paleoconservative South and West.
ReplyDeleteClinton and Giuliani should be each other's running mates. Like the Labour-Tory merger, I'm not saying that it's going to happen, but I can't see any reason why it shouldn't.
I can't see any reason why it shouldn't.
ReplyDeleteHow about the fact that neither Republican nor Democrat activists - the people who vote in the primaries - would tolerate it?
There are no primary elections for Vice-President - the announcement need not even be made until after the Convention has nominated a Presidential candidate. And anyway, I'm talking about political differences. There simply aren't any, like Labour and the Tories.
ReplyDeleteIf Democrats want Clinton, then they can't object to Giuliani. And if Republicans want Giuliani, then they can't object to Clinton, and aren't actually the party everyone (including their voters) thought that they were. Like the Tories, in fact.
As I said, I'm not expecting either a Clinton-Giuliani or a Giuliani-Clinton ticket. But if it happened, then it would at least open up the space for one or more proper alternatives.
"The ridiculous American blockade of Cuba has made the regime there an object of the sympathy of numerous people who should know better."
ReplyDelete*********************************
There is no American "blockade" of Cuba. There is a partial American embargo against Cuba, but that doesn't stop American companies from selling over $100 million of foodstuffs, medical supplies, and other products to Cuba every year. Please educate yourself on this subject.
Actually, if the electoral college tied or is no one candidate got a majority, the house of representatives would elect the President each state delegation voting as a unit and the senate, which is split, the Vice-President, so it could conceivably happen--but not in our universe! I think these two candidates will implode.
ReplyDeletePresidentD, the effect is the same - huge sympathy for the Castro regime.
ReplyDeleteMartin, I really do think that, when neither wins his party's nomination and the two parties nominate the identical figures of Clinton and Giuliani instead, then Paul and Kucinich might stand as an Independent ticket. I certainly hope so.
I actually think that they'd top the poll, although, as you say, the thing would then end up in the House and Senate. But how would that look? Not good. Not good at all.