To understand what actually goes on in these elections and the actual dynamics involved and the actual interests at play and how they get pursued, is to think of the elections, and in particular the primaries, as auditions. Now it’s very important to understand what people are auditioning for and for whom they are auditioning. The candidates are not auditioning for you and me and the rest of the people. They are auditioning for the people who control the money, who control the media, who run things behind the scenes. And they have to operate on two tracks. One is, OK I can pursue your interests better than these other people. I will uphold them and be firm in standing for your interests better than these other people. And the other one is, I can influence the people out here, in the way you need them to be influenced better than these other candidates. So these two things are going on. These two tracks are always operating. This is what the audition is.
—"Elections, Democracy and Dictatorship, Resistance and Revolution," Summer 2004
Why has "conservatism" generally—gained so much influence and initiative within the dominant structures and institutions of American politics?".the waning of liberalism must be seen against a broad canvas. On the one hand, economic and social shifts—like ‘downsizing’ of industry and the decline of unions, suburbanization and the fracturing of the old-line urban political coalitions—have weakened the traditional social props of New Deal politics. On the other hand, intense global economic pressures and looming fiscal crisis are forcing drastic restructuring of government spending and social programs—this following years of restructuring in the private sector. This is an era of `lean and mean’ and ever more mobile capitalism..
"All this has been accompanied by a great deal of turmoil and upheaval, and one of its most important consequences has been that, from a number of angles and among various sectors of the population in the U.S., the basis of the traditional patriarchal family and the ’traditional family values’ associated with it has been significantly eroded..
"This is potentially a very explosive contradiction, and in many aspects this explosiveness is already erupting...."
—The Truth About Right-Wing Conspiracy...And Why Clinton and the Democrats Are No Answer,
November 22, 1998
In some significant ways, what was written 150 years ago in the Communist Manifesto, concerning the consequences of unfettered bourgeois commodity relations, is assuming a pronounced expression among sections of the U.S. population in the context of today’s "post-Cold War" world capitalism. The following phrases from the Manifesto have a particular and powerful resonance: "the bourgeoisie, wherever it has gotten the upper hand...has left remaining no other nexus between man and man than naked self-interest, than callous ’cash payment.’ It has drowned the most heavenly ecstasies of religious fervor, of chivalrous enthusiasm, of Philistine sentimentalism in the icy water of egotistical calculation. It has resolved personal worth into exchange value....In a word, for exploitation, veiled by religious and political illusions, it has substituted naked, shameless, direct, brutal exploitation." There is a great irony here: the very "triumph" and "triumphalism" of capitalism in today’s circumstances has produced effects and sentiments which tend to undermine, among significant sections of the U.S. population, the willingness to make personal sacrifices for "god and country"—that is, for the interests and requirements of the imperial ruling class, within the U.S. itself and in the world arena. In reaction to this, the "conservatives," with the Christian Right playing a decisive role, are attempting to revive and impose precisely "the most heavenly ecstasies of religious fervor, of chivalrous enthusiasm, of Philistine sentimentalism"—to resurrect a situation where worldwide exploitation that is unsurpassed in its brutality is at the same time "veiled by religious and political illusions."—"The Truth About Right-Wing Conspiracy...And Why Clinton and the Democrats Are No Answer,"
November 22, 1998
They have ambitions of essentially reshuffling the whole deck, reordering the whole situation—beginning with the strategic areas of Central and South Asia and the Middle East that are more immediately involved now—but, even beyond that, on a world scale. This is "New World Order Revisited" or New World Order 2 that they’re trying to carry out on a deeper and more sweeping level than what they set out to do with their war against Iraq a decade ago. They’ve set themselves a very far- reaching agenda with gigantic implications.—"The New Situation And The Great Challenges,"January 2002
This arrogance, this arrogant triumphalism, is already a marked phenomenon with their "war on terrorism," and particularly with their initial victories in Afghanistan, and this can come into play in a way that will cause them real problems, as things unfold further. Now, this doesn’t mean that they won’t try to have their strategic "wise men" (and, to be fair to Condoleezza Rice, strategic "wise women") thinking about this and trying to figure out how to avoid that happening—how not to get carried away with their own triumphalism and their "drunk with power syndrome"—but there is inherent in what they’re doing the great possibility for them of overreaching and overstepping themselves, or unleashing forces that they can’t control..And within all this, to whatever perverse and monstrous extent the imperialists’ unleashing of destruction is carried and whatever forms it takes, the forces of the people, worldwide—and in particular the revolutionary forces of the international proletariat and the international communist movement—will have to be working to wrench something radically different and better out of all this.—"The New Situation And The Great Challenges,"January 2002
They talk about the question of "credibility". "can’t withdraw from iraq because then our credibility would be undermined."Well if you watch the Sopranos or if you’ve seen The Godfather , you know what "credibility" means. It means "We rule over people by brutal and ruthless violence, and they won’t be as afraid of us if it looks like we can be pushed out of somewhere where we’re determined to stay in." Whenever you hear them use the word "credibility" in that context, think of gangsters on a global scale.
—"Elections, Democracy and Dictatorship, Resistance and Revolution," Summer 2004
A question that occurs to me that’s interesting to pose is: Have you ever noticed that the Bible Belt in this country, the place where fundamentalist religion is most deeply rooted and widespread—that the Bible Belt is also the lynching belt? And that’s not accidental. Because especially in this society, to insist on "traditional morality," upholding tradition, demanding unquestioning obedience to authority, cannot help, given the whole history of this country, but go along with vicious white supremacy as well as male supremacy.—"Elections, Democracy and Dictatorship, Resistance and Revolution," Summer 2004
Not only are the politics and ideology of the Christian Fascists obviously reactionary, but in some cases they express ideas and advocate positions which, by contemporary standards of rationality, might well constitute certifiable insanity.—"The Truth About Right-Wing Conspiracy...And Why Clinton and the Democrats Are No Answer,"
November 22, 1998
Now one thing to understand is that these people are deadly serious. a lot of their shit is crazy, and you can get into ripping at a lot of it. But this is deadly serious.. They actually believe, right up to the President, that not only do they have a personal relationship with god, but they are being given a mandate and instructions from god. George Bush actually said, when he went to war with Iraq, he was carrying out the orders of god.—"God Doesn’t Exist—And We Need Liberation Without Gods," Summer 2004
We need to develop a more strategic orientation, in order to understand the importance of building resistance and the impact this can have, and already has had, on the political course of things in this country and around the world.—"Elections, Democracy and Dictatorship, Resistance and Revolution," Summer 2004
We have to start seeing this as a whole process of their dynamic versus the dynamic that we have to set in motion—not constantly fitting within the political dynamic that they want to unleash, but bringing forward a different dynamic which isn’t limited and constrained and suffocated by the political terms that they want to say are the only possible political terms. We have to see ourselves, especially in these days, as locked in acute, ongoing struggle with them and their dynamic, to disrupt it and take it in a different direction. And it isn’t going to be settled with one or a few battles. This is an ongoing and acute struggle, and we have to develop the orientation that’s appropriate to that, if we really care about the things we in fact care about.—"Elections, Democracy and Dictatorship, Resistance and Revolution," Summer 2004
Now look, a lot of people who aren’t George Bush and don’t have that kind of power and don’t commit those kind of crimes, think they have a personal relationship with god. And a lot of preachers think they have a direct pipeline to god. Richard Pryor had this whole routine about this movie The Exorcist . I don’t know if some of you saw that movie, but it was about this young girl who was supposedly possessed by the devil—her head spun around, her bed jumped up and down, she puked green bile out of her everywhere. And so these priests came in to exorcise the devil. And it was a long, drawn-out struggle. And Richard Pryor said the movie would’ve been a lot shorter and simpler if it’d been a Black preacher doing it. Because the Black preachers, they’ve got a direct pipeline to god. He said, you know, the black preacher would say, "You know god, there’s a person here, that’s possessed. And I was wonderin’, I know you’re busy, I checked your schedule, but the devil just acting a motherfuckin’ fool. And I was wonderin’ if you could exorcise this motherfucker to Cleveland, or some place." And that would be the end of it.Well there’s a humorous side to this, and we all laugh.this is deadly serious. And it is a deadly serious and potentially fatal error to not recognize that many, many people do take all this literally and with deadly seriousness. And that there is a potential force of mindless, fanatical stormtroopers, millions of people who are being conditioned and trained and led to act in this way— despite the way in which all this stand in profound and sharp contradiction to what can be accepted by most people in modern society.
—"God Doesn’t Exist—And We Need Liberation Without Gods," Summer 2004
Many people turn to religion, especially this absolute kind of religious fundamentalism, as a way of trying to deal with all the afflictions and even some addictions that they experience. This reminds me, you know when you get in debt, you’re in debt everywhere you turn, you’re in debt here, you owe this, you owe that, and all your debts, and then they have these companies that come on TV and they say, We’ll consolidate all your debts into one debt. Then you can just pay us interest. Oh, you know, we’ll pay up all your debts, and all your money will go to us, we’re consolidating all your debt into one big debt. Well the role of religion, especially fundamentalist religion, is to take everybody’s afflictions and addictions and consolidate them into one, big affliction and addiction. But what this still ends up doing is blaming people for their own suffering, oppresion, and miserable conditions.—"God Doesn’t Exist—And We Need Liberation Without Gods," Summer 2004
Down beneath all this is a deeper question that a lot of people wrestle with and agonize over. Can human beings be good without god? Is there a human need for god? Can there be a meaning to life and to human existence without god? Religion in general, and Christianity in particular, on the one hand, and communism on another hand, give very diferent answers to these questions. And one of these answers is real and has to do with the real world, and the other is not and does not.—"God Doesn’t Exist—And We Need Liberation Without Gods," Summer 2004
For our party, our goal is the radical transformation of society, and of the world, to eliminate all oppressive and exploitative relations among people and to abolish all class distinctions and national antagonisms and barriers, to bring about, as the final goal, a freely associating community of human beings, worldwide. The morals and ideology we uphold and strive to apply are in accordance with that objective and are, at any given point, an expression of the link between the current struggle and the final goal. In this way, our outlook and principles, as well as our political program and actions, are in the most fundamental opposition to the Christian fascists and at the same time to all forms and expressions of bourgeois rule and bourgeois ideology. But we also recognize, consistent with our outlook and principles, that there is a need, and a basis, for building a broad unity in struggle against what has been referred to as the politics of poverty, punishment, and patriarchy and in general against the ways in which the masses of people, in the U.S. and throughout the world, are subjected to exploitation, oppression and plunder.And we believe that, together with building this political unity in struggle, there is also a need and a basis to forge broad unity, among diverse forces, around values and cultural expressions that promote and celebrate equality, between men and women, and between peoples and nations; that stand against oppression and against violence which furthers and enforces such oppression; that oppose imperial domination by one nation over others and military bludgeoning to impose that domination; that foster relations among people based on an appreciation for diversity but also for community; values and culture that prize cooperation among people in place of cut-throat competition, that put the needs of people above the drive to accumulate wealth, that actually promote the global interests of humanity as opposed to narrow national antagonisms and great-power domination.
—"The Truth About Right-Wing Conspiracy...And Why Clinton and the Democrats Are No Answer,"
November 22, 1998