In two sentences, a major part of what I've been trying to tell Charles for at least 4 yrs. now.
Cue to CB telling you a Trotskyist that you are a, "red-baiter."
But, do you have any crits of LDT and the 57 varieties of (mostly ineffectual) Trotskyism? Last yr. I read a critique of Trotsky and Trotskyism by an Aussie neo-marxist w/ a slight pomo bent, Peter Beilharz, which impressed me greatly. "Trotsky, Trotskyism and the Transition to Socialism, " published in '87. An editor of Thesis Eleven, which has published alot of Castoriadis and Agnes Heller, two faves. To condence his argument greatly, he 'sez LDT was economistic, objectivistic, reductionist and teleological.
These sound like the standard string of pomo epithets for anyone presumptuous enough to make claims about reality, especially Marxists. To give a short answer on Trotsky: Many things called Trotskyist today are propositions associated with revolutionary Marxism, which Trotsky based himself on but didn't originate. How valid they are is of course a big subject. I think the specific contributions of Trotsky fall under three main, interconnected, headings: 1) the critique of Stalinism, 2) the theory of permanent revolution, 3) the Transitional Program. I think the third of these is the weakest, based as it is on the notion of capitalism in its death throes, plausible in the 30s when it was written but subsequently refuted by history. The other two have stood the test of time better than most theories. Suggestion: Read a little Trotsky in addition to critiques of him.