Article on the Labor Party in the new Labor Notes

Alex LoCascio locascioa at labornet.org
Mon Sep 14 13:25:01 PDT 1998


Wow, this is an old post but I'm grateful that someone responded to it. Anyway, reply time...

Nurev at Kreative.net wrote:
> Is this like being just a little pregnant? Isn't clear enough at this
> point in history that the Left has no business supporting the moderate
> wing of the Big Business Party?

The Democratic Party may be moderate as a whole, but there are individual Democrats who, while not radical, are progressive. I specifically mentioned Mel Watt in the original post. Danny Davis and Bobby Rush also come to mind. I'm not saying that if the LP isn't running a candidate in a race it should automatically support the Democrat. I'm saying that in races where you have a progressive Democrat going up against a Repug, it would be wise for the LP to endorse the ProgDem.


> The Left needs to be independent and clean, and ready to fill the vacuum
> as Democrats and Republicans damage each other while competing for the
> power institutions. The Left should step out of the way, and let the
> elephants gore each other to death. At some point the public will be
> damn
> sick of both of them and ready to look elsewhere.

Yeah, well, unless the Left makes itself visible, the "public" will most likely turn to pseudo-populist demagogues like Pat Buchanan.

I've never adhered to the Leninist notion that things should go to shit before the Left steps in to make things better...



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