Trotskyism is one of the most spectacularly failed
> political movements there is.
See Australian post-marxist, Peter Beilharz work, "Trotsky, Trotskyism and the Transition to Socialism, " on the mechanistic, determinisms of orthodox Trotskyism. (Kostas Mavrakis, maoist work on Trotskyism is of a much lower caliber.)
Doss...There are reasons for it -- mainly, Trotsky
> was mostly full of shit.
http://www.yorku.ca/lefthist/online/arguetw.html
Given the anti-Semitic quotas and high tuitions of Ivy League universities, the four men ended up being educated at City College in New York, which was close to home and free. Here they battled against both the obtusely reactionary administration (which invited fascist speakers in the late 1930s) and many of their fellow student radicals (who tended to be in the orbit of the Communist Party). The feverish political atmosphere allowed the four men to hone their debating skills. Their education was furthered by contact with the older generation of writers associated with Partisan Review, a magazine that combined Trotskyist politics with high literary standards. Of course, Trotsky was a difficult master to follow. William Phillips, editor of Partisan Review, recalls an argument between Trotsky and one of the magazine's staff: "Trotsky turned viciously against Dwight Macdonald …. He said everybody had a democratic write to be stupid but Dwight Macdonald abuses the privilege! The sequel to the story is that some people came around raising funds for Trotsky and they rang Dwight Macdonald's doorbell and asked him to contribute to Trotsky. Macdonald said, 'Tell Trotsky to go fuck himself!'"