“Please find me one DSA member who was inspired to become a card-carrying socialist through Bernie Sanders’s presidential campaigns, who feels “betrayed” by Zohran Mamdani’s mayoralty?”
“Their insistence that DSA commit political suicide by abandoning any association with the Democrats reminds me of how Lenin chastized the German and Dutch left communists for refusing parliamentary participation, which they considered “obsolete.”
There is a huge difference between refusing to engage in electoral politics entirely and refusing to work within the Democratic Party which is fundamentally a pro-capitalist party.
You believe in preserving the capitalist system and reforming and regulating it to make it more fair and just. This cannot be done, not without exploiting the hell out of other people overseas, the loss of which is collapsing the European Social Democracy you wish to emulate right now.
No, the DSA is a tool to attract progressive causes into the Democratic Party machine where they can be safely processed, commodified, marketed, and forgotten.
I, OTOH, believe a real revolution is necessary in order to replace the capitalist system, which has failed for most of us, with something better. I do not believe the words you are thinking, which are that I'm being naive--or worse--for even thinking any other system could be a "realistic" improvement over capitalism, or that I'm immoral for acknowledging that no progressive change has ever happened without violence or the threat of violence.
No, Joe. We cannot get out of this mess by elections alone. That is as certain as the sun usually rising in the east. Your strategy is designed to fail, just like Bernie Sanders failed. That's why the Democratic establishment tolerates you.
“Please find me one DSA member who was inspired to become a card-carrying socialist through Bernie Sanders’s presidential campaigns, who feels “betrayed” by Zohran Mamdani’s mayoralty?”
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“Their insistence that DSA commit political suicide by abandoning any association with the Democrats reminds me of how Lenin chastized the German and Dutch left communists for refusing parliamentary participation, which they considered “obsolete.”
There is a huge difference between refusing to engage in electoral politics entirely and refusing to work within the Democratic Party which is fundamentally a pro-capitalist party.
You believe in preserving the capitalist system and reforming and regulating it to make it more fair and just. This cannot be done, not without exploiting the hell out of other people overseas, the loss of which is collapsing the European Social Democracy you wish to emulate right now.
No, the DSA is a tool to attract progressive causes into the Democratic Party machine where they can be safely processed, commodified, marketed, and forgotten.
I, OTOH, believe a real revolution is necessary in order to replace the capitalist system, which has failed for most of us, with something better. I do not believe the words you are thinking, which are that I'm being naive--or worse--for even thinking any other system could be a "realistic" improvement over capitalism, or that I'm immoral for acknowledging that no progressive change has ever happened without violence or the threat of violence.
No, Joe. We cannot get out of this mess by elections alone. That is as certain as the sun usually rising in the east. Your strategy is designed to fail, just like Bernie Sanders failed. That's why the Democratic establishment tolerates you.