You can't create anything on the left (or on any other point on the political spectrum) by spending neither time nor money -- that is just a fact.
How did Hugo Chávez win a landslide victory? Luckily, oil prices have gone up, and he, already holding the levers of state power, could spend money (take that, capitalists!), and the money was well-spent by tireless Bolivarian organizers: e.g.,
"Ms. [Evelyn] Uzcanga's role has been to spend up to 15 hours a day tramping along narrow passageways between ramshackle homes, talking to people, looking for voters. With her son Daniel - who is 5 and, coincidentally, somewhat resembles the chunky president - at her side, she would peer into doors and stop by shops, pulling aside people and peppering them with questions" (Juan Forero, "Chávez Loyalists Troll Venezuelan Barrios for the Undecided," <em>New York Times</em>, <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2004/08/15/international/americas/15venezuela.ready.html">August 15, 2004</a>).
Leftists in the USA are light years behind leftists in Venezuela; the latter are defending what they have already won and are poised to winning more; the former, first and foremost, need to create the ranks of organizers and activists willing to spend time and money organizing to break through "the corrupt two-party system favoured by the oligarchy" (Tariq Ali, "The Importance of Hugo Chávez: Why He Crushed the Oligarchs," <em>CounterPunch</em>, <a href="http://counterpunch.org/tariq08162004.html">August 16, 2004</a>).
BTW, anyone who has ever visited Columbus, OH knows that my partner, a leftist who is a Presbyterian, union man, and public-sector worker, is far more generous with his time and money than I am. Then, he does more housework than I do, too. Behind every female leftist there is a good man (or woman). :-)
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