>Doug wrote:
>Shane Mage wrote:
>
> >"breaking with the Dems," for the revolutionary left, is neither
> >a long-term strategy nor even part of a long-term strategy. It
> >is the condition sine qua non for the possibility of a long-term
> >strategy.
>
>It's a reflex, not a strategy. Trots have been saying it for decades,
>as they splinter further into deeper irrelevance, and now the Greens
>have taken it up, as they too splinter further into deeper
>irrelevance. It's a fine impulse if there are steps 2, 3, 4... in
>mind, but it's looking more and more like no one's gotten beyond step
>1 (unless you call splitting steps 2, 3, 4...)
One always gains a reputation for political sagacity by dumping on the "trots" while bemoaning the quadrennial parlor game of the "lesser of two evils."
To repeat Shane Mage's absolutely correct observation:
>...Trots have been saying it for decades...
No, they've been saying it for generations, since even before the birth of Trotsky ("Trots" here = revolutionary marxists and "Dems" = capitalist-dominated parties)
>, as they splinter further into deeper irrelevance, and now the
>Greens have taken it up, as they too splinter further into deeper
>irrelevance. It's a fine impulse if there are steps 2, 3, 4... in
>mind, but it's looking more and more like no one's gotten beyond
>step 1 (unless you call splitting steps 2, 3, 4...)
Splitting is the inevitable consequence of the illusion that one can take "steps 2, 3, 4..." when step *one* remains untaken by the working classes and their totally inadequate leadership (including the whole range from ordinary bureaucrats to self-styled socialists).
Larry Shute