Boring Jeff Mackler, retired union hack and National Secretary of Socialist Action (SA), ran for president (of the United States!) in 2016. The campaign was a total flop, consisting only of a half-hearted tour through southern New England. Following the announcement in June, Boring Jeff's candidacy all but disappeared from the pages of Socialist Action.
That was then--only 4 months before the November election. I speculate he ran for Prez only because SA no longer wanted to "critically support" the Socialist Workers Party (SWP), likely because the latter explicitly rejected antisemitism. Mr. Mackler was just a last-minute stand-in candidate so comrades could express their Jew-hatred at the ballot box.
This year--a full 17 months before the general election--one infers they're more serious about running a real campaign. And true to form, Boring Jeff made what I guess he thinks was a dramatic announcement. No--he didn't ride down an escalator. No--he didn't address a crowd of thousands, or even hundreds. Not even dozens.
The big reveal happened at a Socialist Action National Committee Plenum--likely an audience of about a dozen people. Boring Jeff's campaign strategy closely follows that of his apparent mentor--Leonid Brezhnev. Leave it to a bureaucrat to make a bureaucratic announcement to an audience of fellow bureaucrats.
Though this time it's serious--so serious in fact that it looks like Boring Jeff hasn't even changed his shirt since 2016. I sure hope it's been laundered--otherwise the campaign will stink to high heaven.
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| Jeff Mackler in 2016 |
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| Jeff Mackler today |
Because they're already making excuses:
"At best, and at great cost, socialists are able to achieve “legal” ballot status in just a handful of states—and even then, no matter the seriousness of our campaign efforts, we are consciously excluded from coverage. How could it be otherwise when the nation’s corporate media are owned and controlled by the exact same ruling-class forces that select the candidates to be their representatives in the first place?"
Admittedly, grouplets of about a hundred people don't have the same media clout as the Democratic Party, which got nearly 66 million votes in 2016. Because, you know, 65,999,900 voters were stupid and only went along with the media. Only the last 100 were of sufficient independent mind to vote for Boring Jeff.
But, as said, this year is different. They might actually try to win some attention, just as Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez (AOC) did just by her lonesome. At very least Boring Jeff might ride down an escalator. Or get a Twitter account. Or set up a real Facebook page. Or change his shirt. Or break from the Brezhnevian campaign strategy. Minimally I'd expect them to get on the ballot in a few states--though they make no commitment to do so.
In my day the Socialist Workers Party ran successful campaigns: Jenness & Pulley in 1972, and Camejo and Reid in 1976. Those were the days when pathetic candidates like Boring Jeff were put out to pasture.
Anyway, I've got the perfect campaign slogan for them:
The End is Nigh!
Because, we confront "a near-term climate catastrophe that threatens the future of life on earth." I don't know what "near-term" is. AOC says it's twelve years. I suspect Boring Jeff will grant us a short reprieve--30 years? I hope it's at least that long--I don't want to live long enough to see the end of the world.
Either way, Boring Jeff's proposal is hopelessly inadequate to the problem. He says
Boring Jeff obviously doesn't believe his own bullshit about imminent climate catastrophe.
And neither does the vice-presidential candidate, Heather Bradford, also a member of the
National Committee and present at the Plenum. Presumably she raised her hand when they asked for volunteers to be vice president. Ms. Bradford is "the organizer of Socialist Action’s branch in Duluth, Minn., and Superior, Wis., in the Lake Superior region. Bradford works full time as a women’s advocate at a domestic violence shelter and part time at an abortion clinic and as a substitute public school teacher. She is the secretary of AFSCME Local 3558, a delegate to the Duluth Central Labor body, and a union steward."
Nothing dishonorable in any of that (except maybe the abortion clinic), but is she really the lady whose finger you want on the nuclear button in the event Boring Jeff can't finish his term of office? I don't think so.
Ms. Bradford seems more invested in feminism and LGBTQ rights than is seemly for somebody who believes in the imminent end of the world. You'd think she'd focus on the more immediate problem.
For all of that, one wonders why Socialist Action is fielding a presidential ticket at all. Because Jill Stein's Green Party campaign in 2016 echoed Boring Jeff's platform almost 100%, including antisemitism. The Greens are much closer to being the mass working class party that Boring Jeff so desires than SA could ever hope to be. Yet SA labeled the Green Party as middle class, and so excluded them from consideration. Though I fail to see how the Greens are more middle class than SA, represented as it is by teachers' union bureaucrats.
The only reason for a separate SA campaign is their commitment to purist, Brezhnevian tactics. For without the blessing of the Plenum of the National Committee, no person is worthy of running against Donald J. Trump.
By the way, perhaps Ms. Bradford, with her busy schedule campaigning around the country, doesn't realize that it's supposed to snow in her hometown Duluth this weekend (May 18th).
So much for global warming.
Further Reading:
Either way, Boring Jeff's proposal is hopelessly inadequate to the problem. He says
We need a party of our own—a mass working-class party based on an independent, reinvigorated, democratic, fighting trade-union movement allied in struggles in the social, political, and economic arenas with the organizations of the oppressed and exploited.That'll cool the planet! Short of blocking out the sun, a mass working-class party based on... organizations of the oppressed and exploited is the best refrigeration method ever devised by the human race.
Boring Jeff obviously doesn't believe his own bullshit about imminent climate catastrophe.
And neither does the vice-presidential candidate, Heather Bradford, also a member of the
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| Heather Bradford |
National Committee and present at the Plenum. Presumably she raised her hand when they asked for volunteers to be vice president. Ms. Bradford is "the organizer of Socialist Action’s branch in Duluth, Minn., and Superior, Wis., in the Lake Superior region. Bradford works full time as a women’s advocate at a domestic violence shelter and part time at an abortion clinic and as a substitute public school teacher. She is the secretary of AFSCME Local 3558, a delegate to the Duluth Central Labor body, and a union steward."
Nothing dishonorable in any of that (except maybe the abortion clinic), but is she really the lady whose finger you want on the nuclear button in the event Boring Jeff can't finish his term of office? I don't think so.
Ms. Bradford seems more invested in feminism and LGBTQ rights than is seemly for somebody who believes in the imminent end of the world. You'd think she'd focus on the more immediate problem.
For all of that, one wonders why Socialist Action is fielding a presidential ticket at all. Because Jill Stein's Green Party campaign in 2016 echoed Boring Jeff's platform almost 100%, including antisemitism. The Greens are much closer to being the mass working class party that Boring Jeff so desires than SA could ever hope to be. Yet SA labeled the Green Party as middle class, and so excluded them from consideration. Though I fail to see how the Greens are more middle class than SA, represented as it is by teachers' union bureaucrats.
The only reason for a separate SA campaign is their commitment to purist, Brezhnevian tactics. For without the blessing of the Plenum of the National Committee, no person is worthy of running against Donald J. Trump.
By the way, perhaps Ms. Bradford, with her busy schedule campaigning around the country, doesn't realize that it's supposed to snow in her hometown Duluth this weekend (May 18th).
So much for global warming.
Further Reading:
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