----- Original Message ----- From: "Nathan Newman" <nathan at newman.org>
>
> I love how both the Right and the Left equate democratic procedures
with
> capitalism, as if they are inseparable. It is a weird ideological
> collaboration to charge socialism with being inherently unobtainable
without
> undemocratic means. Engels was always clear when he was plumping
for the
> German Social Democrats that only minor reforms could be
accomplished until
> the Social Democrats convinced a large enough majority to give them
full
> power. The same is true for progressive Democrats. The problem is
not with
> the Constitution (except maybe the US Senate filibuster rules) or
with the
> Democrats per se, but that we have not convinced a majority of the
US
> population to support our issues electorally. On a lot of them, we
are
> actually not too far off, but my point is that having 45% of the
population
> on your side gets you pretty much zilch-- you need the last 5% (plus
some
> given Senate rules) to win.
>
> -- Nathan Newman
===================
Didn't some guy named Przeworski write a book about the *big-time* problems of an electoral path to socialism...'Capitalism and Social Democracy'......:-)
Ian