>On Jul 7, 2004, at 4:03 PM, Doug Henwood wrote:
>
>>Running for the office of chief executive of the world bourgeoisie
>>doesn't seem like the time to conduct scores of simultaneous
>>experiments.
>
>But your characterization of that office does raise the question of
>what the point of a radical party putting up a candidate actually is.
I stole the characterization from Workers Vanugard, and I think it's a pretty good one.
> Why should anyone who wants to overthrow the system, or at least
>make major changes in it, run for chief executive of the system?
Good question. The executive branch is a very different ball of wax from the legislative. The executive is, as the man said, the executive committee of the bourgeoisie, while the legislature is much more diverse and porous. It seems especially odd for a movement that is so obsessed with the grassroots to focus on the top, instead of percolating up from below.
Doug