I must say I agree with this in a way. I think the problem though is that there is no such thing as "scratch". There is only critique; there's no blank slate. Those of us, for example, who have broken with the Leninist and social democratic traditions did not do so by wiping the slate clean; that would simply be a kind of oblivion if it were possible. We did it because we felt the same kinds of uneasiness that we originally felt with other forms of capitalist dictatorship and then went looking for the ideas that would help us.
I think one thing that consistently disappoints on this list is that there is very little attempt to critique or seriously engage with anything that is seen to be in the marxist or broader leftist traditions; anything that is somehow 'un-American' is simply opposed to what is American, no matter whether it is Stalin or Romania or Cuba or Iraqi terrorists. Then someone says no that's not a good alternative for this or that reason and so the wheel goes round again. I know I've said this before, and I'm sure that anyone who had the time and ability to do a corpus analysis of this list would find that about 50% of the debate (a huge proportion of a very high volume list) inevitably reverts back to the question of which capitalist politician to vote for, and for a list that is supposedly open to all leftist alternatives that is really shocking.
The species of thought that I find most discouraging here is that which says we shouldn't critique anything if it seems to be the lesser evil. So don't criticise this or that dictator because he is anti-imperialist; don't mention some of the more unsavoury aspects of the Palestinian leadership because that would invite suspicion that you support Israel (!); don't criticise Stalin because that means that you are buying the Western mythology, etc., etc. etc. The poverty of such thinking is truly depressing. It is not surprising that we end up with the tamest of reformism as alternatives. And unfortunately Yosh I see that this is where you and Doug are in the same boat not where you differ. Last time he voted Green, now you are. Ho hum.
Tahir