Date: 13 Feb 96 03:57:58 EST
From: "Chris, London" <100423.2040-AT-compuserve.com>
Subject: Re: Buchanan and the Christian Coalition


With the news just breaking on Tuesday morning in London that Buchanan has
pushed Dole to the finishing line, I wanted to thank Scott and Barkley for
their interesting points. 

Yes I was aware that there is a great difference between the USA and England
in church attendance. I can only assume that it is partly a dynamic
in the superstructure of its own and partly linked to the extreme mobility 
in the USA - the average person moves every 7 years? - and hence the need for
community.

This links with previous comments about Buchanan - more important than analysing
whether he is or is not a fascist, is to analyse the social formations behind
him. I would suggest that marxists need to be clear that what distinguishes
the marxist position on religion is not militant atheism, but a willingness
to understand the socio-economic patterns expressed indirectly through religion.

Christian oppenents of the Christian Coalition may be in the best position to 
explain what comes over as *positive* in the Coalition message. Only if
these contradictions are understood from the inside will it be possible to have 
some leverage.

My guess is that it is a spiritual and social reaction to anomie, the atomised
nature of bourgeois (buergerlich) civil society. Thank God Farrakhan is keeping
the blacks away from them.

So folks, does anyone know of a good analysis of the Coalition. How much money?
Where does it come from? Forms of organisation? Class structure? 
Surely someone is doing a doctorate on this even if they are keeping quiet
about the subversive marxist nature of their analysis? OR perhaps they
don't know that their analysis is subversive and marxist even though it is.


Chris,
London.   But judging by mail delays on the l'st you may get this long
after you yourselves heard the Iowa result.

PPS And thanks Bryan for the wonderful editorial from Business Week on 
this theme. Clearly they employ crypto-marxists too, who just disguise 
themselves by not talking about "the working class".


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