The Rent is Too Damn High

[Die Rote Fahne]

Jimmy McMillan. Maybe some of you have heard of him, or seen the debate.

Here's the video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x4o-TeMHys0

What are you're thoughts on this man's candidacy, platform and party?

Honestly, I'm surprised he hasn't been called a Marxist by FOX news yet.

[Red Commissar]

It's also worth looking at the "party" site-

http://www.rentistoodamnhigh.org/

It's a catchy beat. I think it they're just trying to make a point though, not a serious bid for the governorship. Even at the bottom of the site there they're owned by "McMillan Entertainment, INC".

[southernmissfan]

He's a karate expert. Something essential for any potential governor. If I was a karate expert, I wouldn't talk about any of those candidates either. Because our kids ain't go nowhere to live.

As funny as it was though, I think it's a good thing that some genuine outrage managed to make it into a public platform like that.

[Purple]

I think if he get some more media coverage he could probably gather some of the protest vote.

[Martin Blank]

It says something about American politics that this is the most pro-working class party on the ballot in New York.

[timbaly]

It says something about American politics that this is the most pro-working class party on the ballot in New York.


I woulsn't say that's necessarily true. Check out the Green Party candidate Howie Hawkins and the Freedom Party candidate Charles Barron. I'm not saying they're revolutionary but they're arguably more pro-working class. Also the Socialist Workers Party has no candidate on he ballot this year but Dan Fein is running a write-off campaign. They usually are on the ballot but I heard they didn't submit petitions to be on the ballot this year. I'm not sure why.

[Martin Blank]

I wouldn't say that's necessarily true. Check out the Green Party candidate Howie Hawkins and the Freedom Party candidate Charles Barron. I'm not saying they're revolutionary but they're arguably more pro-working class. Also the Socialist Workers Party has no candidate on he ballot this year but Dan Fein is running a write-off campaign. They usually are on the ballot but I heard they didn't submit petitions to be on the ballot this year. I'm not sure why.

I know Howie, and I trust his "working-class" politics about as far as I can throw him. And Barron is opposed to upholding the XIV Amendment to the Constitution (he opposes the right of same-sex couples to obtain a marriage license from the state). If the SWP is running a write-in campaign, that would probably make Fein the most pro-working-class candidate running, but not the most pro-working-class candidate on the ballot.

[Saorsa]

This guy's videos are doing the rounds in NZ. He's hilarious!

but he also has some good points.

[Chimurenga.]

And Barron is opposed to upholding the XIV Amendment to the Constitution (he opposes the right of same-sex couples to obtain a marriage license from the state).

Where does he say this? In the debates, he only said that the Freedom Party hadn't taken a position on that issue.

Charles Barron is by far, without a doubt, the best candidate in these elections and everyone in New York should seriously consider voting for him. No doubt he is the most progressive.

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[Martin Blank]

Where does he say this? In the debates, he only said that the Freedom Party hadn't taken a position on that issue.

There are a lot of people who know Barron, ranging from liberals to radicals, who have worked with him and know his views on this issue.


Charles Barron is by far, without a doubt, the best candidate in these elections and everyone in New York should seriously consider voting for him. No doubt he is the most progressive.

He may be "progressive", but he and his party are no break from the capitalist system. I looked at the party's website, watched some of the videos and read their platform. It was like reading the Democratic Party platform from the 1970s, with a little extra thrown in from the Greens. Politically, I'd place the Freedom Party between those two.

I honestly think Fannie Lou Hamer is turning in her grave at this group of privileged petty bourgeois liberals appropriating her name and struggle. I also honestly think this party would not exist if Barron had been asked to be on the statewide Democratic ticket with Cuomo & Co.

[Kibbutznik]

Well, it's pretty clearly a one-man show, but the existence and relative success of the "Rent is Too Damn High Party" is a pretty clear indication of just how people are feeling, and how terribly the main parties are addressing it.

I think there's something to be said about Jimmy McMillan's style. I watched him in the debate, and he was quite captivating, addressing the kinds of social welfare issues that no one in the mainstream would.

[Chimurenga.]

He may be "progressive", but he and his party are no break from the capitalist system. I looked at the party's website, watched some of the videos and read their platform.

If you watch the video I posted, he blatantly said that basically "only so much change can be made getting me into office. To achieve everything else will take a revolution." He is actually a Socialist and is anti-capitalist.


It was like reading the Democratic Party platform from the 1970s, with a little extra thrown in from the Greens. Politically, I'd place the Freedom Party between those two.

http://www.freedompartynys.com/agenda

Really? The Democratic Party program from the 70's called for full employment at living wages, abolishing the death penalty, freeing all political prisoners, and lifting sanctions against Cuba?

They are very much to the left of the Green Party, for sure.

[timbaly]

Charles Barron is by far, without a doubt, the best candidate in these elections and everyone in New York should seriously consider voting for him. No doubt he is the most progressive.



My main issue with him is that he's terrible at framing things. His city council speeches and other political speeches do not appeal to the majority of the population. He too often isolates the non-black and non-latinos in the city by inappropriately framing his points. This is a huge probelm for him since most people living in the state are not black or latino and only about half of those in the city are black or latino. For example he complained about the lack of funding for city schools by saying the state was shortchanging the black and latino communities. In reality the state has been shortchanging students from NYC, Buffalo, Rochester, Yonkers, and Syracuse since 1993. I believe the state Supreme Court called the shortchanging unconstitutional in 1993. However all the students that were affected were not black and latino. Many asians and whites were also affected though it is true that most were black and latino.

[Martin Blank]

If you watch the video I posted, he blatantly said that basically "only so much change can be made getting me into office. To achieve everything else will take a revolution." He is actually a Socialist and is anti-capitalist.

You should take the time to research the term "Sunday socialism".


Really? The Democratic Party program from the 70's called for full employment at living wages, abolishing the death penalty, freeing all political prisoners, and lifting sanctions against Cuba?

Yes, the 1970s Democrats not only called for full unemployment at (their idea of) living wages, they passed the Hubert Humphrey Full Employment Act, which technically requires the government to make sure there is full employment. In the 1970s, it was the liberal-leaning (and Democratic Party installed) Supreme Court that struck down the death penalty; it was eventually overturned in the 1980s, when SCOTUS went to the right. And there is a section of the Democratic Party that wants sanctions against Cuba lifted. So those three are already covered by one bourgeois party. The Greens call for freeing all political prisoners, so there's that one.

In other words, there is nothing "anti-capitalist" about those demands. They are, at best, radical-liberal.

[Cham_Empire]

I oppose capitalism. that is all. if the politician is capitalist, I will not vote.

[Die Neue Zeit]

The organizational name reeks of single-issue "politics." :(

For his "progressive" politics, he's better off trying to resuscitate the United States Labor Party.