JBrown72073 at cs.com wrote:
>
>
> Did the poll pit it against the Republican party (implicitly or explicitly)?
> Or vs. an independent black-led, black-oriented "Liberation Party"? I'd like
> to see the numbers on _that_ one. And I suspect the negatives from whites
> show mostly Republicans, not so much those who don't think the Democrats are
> left enough.
Poll numbers can help flesh out a position achieved _prior to_ examining the polls, but they are so irrelevant to forming a position. And of course in left vocabulary (or any left vocabulary that I am interested in) "leadership" means _leadership from within the struggle_. No one right now is offering "leadership" to "the left" (quotes because, as I have tirelessly argued, the phrase has no empirical relevance at the present) -- what we have are some 10s of thousands of people scattered around the nation trying to pull together something that can be a provisional context out of which "a left" can emerge.
Talk of black leadership at the present time is either an analysis of the first quarter century after the war, when there is no doubt about it that in substance blacks were the cutting edge of all left activity (including activity in which few or no blacks were present), OR are predictions of what will have to be a precondition dor the full emergence in the u.s. of a coherent left movement.
But even under present conditions, it is interesting that the only DP politicians who participated in the recent demos were black. It is also at least mildly interesting that the official who finally gave minimal substance to reaction to Katrina was a black army officer. I merely say "interesting," not that any particular theory turns on these matters. It is also interesting (and important) that the only group in the U.S. with a strong majority of DP voters are blacks. They are voting for an appearance, as did virtually all DP voters who thought they were voting for the progressive cause (or the lesser evil). Given that, their vote is indeed part of the basis for believing that _in the future_ black masses will be at the forefront of any left resurgence in the u.s. There is not left now for them to support or lead.
Carrol