I’ve long thought along these lines when looking at New York’s election system (adopted a few years’ back in some form in Oregon, and why I find the mechanics and stated purpose of the “Independent Party of Oregon” worthy of derision):

But if you read between the lines, the obituary shows that something is truly rotten in New York City’s politics, and in particular, the political party structure that exists in that state.

At bottom the cult leader, Fred Newman, had a good old fashioned political machine operating for transactional politics.  He moved a mass of followers to different political ends, tools which were useful for an assortment of political figures.

This is the problem with New York’s political system.

In the old heyday of New Deal and Fair Deal politics in New York, the legitimate  labor leader Alex Rose, head of the now defunct Hat, Cap and Millinery Workers union, created the Liberal Party, a political formation that for decades was the choice of much of New York’s independent voters to cast their ballots for candidates. This, despite the fact that the endorsed candidate was probably a Democrat and at times a Republican. There was nothing cult like about its leaders or its organization; it was a legitimate step to create an alternative for liberal New Yorkers to cast their ballot for a candidate they supported and still maintain their independence from both major parties. As such, the Liberal Party often functioned as the make or break line that a candidate needed to win a place on its ballot to win a New York City election.

Ron Radosh looks a bit too favorably at that third party Liberal Party “line”.  Roosevelt used the Liberal Party to break Tammany, actually.  After that, it operated something like Fred Newman / Lenora Fulani / Jackie Salit’s Independence Party, as a ballot line that needs votes to keep its third line — that needs to sustain its existence.  “Neither liberal nor a party” ran the joke.  It was no wonder the Conservative Party bounced its line status — this had an ideological reason for existing — Nixon sent veiled support for James Buckley’s Senate bid.  But we see the peculiar problem with New York’s political system pop up again in the last election — the Conservative Party nominated Rick Lazio, wanting to go with the expected Republican nominee — which ended up backing the more conservative primary candidate — Carl Paladino.

New York Times obituary of Fred Newman: Fred Newman’s influential role in New York life and politics defied easy description.
[…]As late as 2005, Mr. Newman wrote that he remained a Marxist, albeit what he called a postmodern one.

There isn’t much a person, hoping to wield influence on a convas of vote-getting, can do as a Marxist.  But there is some built-in-support for an “Independence” or “Independent” Party, based on the name.  And with it comes the accolades from his supporters such as:

A key architect of today’s independent movement has died. Fred Newman will be deeply missed.

Hm.  And, hm.
He was twice married and divorced. He is survived by his son, Donald; his daughter, Elizabeth Newman; and by Gabrielle L. Kurlander and Jacqueline Salit, his life partners in what Ms. Salit described as an “unconventional family of choice.”

August 9, 2000 NYT interview tih Lenora Fulana:
Mim Udovitch:  Well, there we disagree.  You’re a developmental psychologist, but not practicing, right?
Lenora Fulani:  I’m trained in social therapy, and I practiced for about seven years. But then I started running for president, and that kind of thing.

Can independents reform America? Nat’l Conference of Independents this weekend:  Jacqueline Salit, president of IndependentVoting.org, issued this invitation to independents considering attending

NYT obituary:  He founded a Marxist-Leninist party, fostered a sexually charged brand of psychotherapy

NYT 2000 interview– “Lenora Fulani, “the county’s leading African American independent.” — and here.:
Mim Udovitch:  One thing frequently noted about Fred Newman, whom you’ve described as your mentor, is that he sees nothing wrong in sleeping with patients. Is that correct?

Lenora Fulani:  What he’s challenging there is the traditional assumption of how therapy works, that there has to be some distance in order for it to be helpful. And we disagree with that, not just from the vantage point of whether or not you can sleep with somebody you’re doing therapy with, but also just in how close and how open you can be. It just gets sensationalized.

NYT Obituary:  He encouraged collective members to sleep with one another, an activity he called “friendosexuality.”

Newman, 1974:  “The two workers, revolutionary therapist and slave/patient, struggle together to make a revolution through their practice. The work is not to simply understand in a causal or logical sense but to engage in the practice of making revolution.”

NYT obituary: “It’s probably fair to say I was the dominant leader,” Mr. Newman said in an interview with The New York Observer in 1999. “I hope I wasn’t an authoritarian oppressor, but I think that’s probably accurate to say that.”

Whatever one concludes about Fred Newman (anything from vital trailblazer to cultist charlatan), he certainly was one of the most interesting figures in the history of alternative politics.
Sure.  Whatever.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, July 13th, 2011 at 1:54 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.