>So what is the New Party about?
There are some fine people working at the grassroots for the New Party, especially out in smaller cities and rural areas. But at the upper levels, and in places like New York, I see them as part of the liberal foundation culture, either cynically trying to bind their followers to the Democrats through their perverse in-out shuffle, or lacking the courage to break from the Dems. A largely top-down operation with no internal democracy at all - exactly what you'd expect from the liberal foundation culture. It was very revealing that when Joel Rogers visited the Nation's offices a year or two ago, he was travelling with a retired program officer from one of the Rockefeller foundations. It's also revealing that their favorite campaign theme is "democracy," a floating signifier if there ever was one. I suppose if I were Zizek, I could argue that this use of "democracy" is a noble one with a long tradition, but I don't think that applies in this case, since the NP's program is essentially contentless, designed to avoid giving offense to anyone. I still stand by everything I wrote about them in 1993 <http://www.panix.com/~dhenwood/New-Party.html>.
Doug