--- Doug Henwood <dhenwood at panix.com> wrote:
>>
> I kept struggling with my inner Trotskyist last
> night. I'd quietly
> cheer each projected Dem victory and then the Trot
> at the back of my
> mind would say "It doesn't matter. They're just two
> wings of the same
> party of capital." The inner debate is still going
> on today. I
> predict the inner Trot will score strong gains when
> Pelosi starts
> talking about healing or some shit like that.
>
[WS:] Doug, be real. The Trot (inside you or out) is merely a sour grapes guy, explaining away unpopularity of his politics. The banal truth is that people do make political choices and support those candidates with whom they identify. Perhaps they do it for wrong reasons, but the support the status quo nonetheless. That is the whole story - there is no elite conspiracy to suppress radical left because there is no need for one - the radical left has nearly zero popular support in this country.
If indeed there are only two wings of the same party, it is because of the split the center mentality of the majority of the US population, a position that prominently features in your own postings. Indeed, why would a "median voter" feel the need to abandon the political status quo - which does provide stablity, economic prosperity (by the world standards), and legal protection on a more or less equal basis and opt for an unknown quantity often associated with extremism, poverty and the so-called failed states?
The US system delivers, for the most part, and it delivers a bit more to people with income under $250k when Democrats are in power. Therefore, the majority of the population has no reason not to support Democrats or reject the system altogether, even if they do not get much as they think they should, or even as much as the system could deliver under a different leadership.
The Polish sociologist Zygmunt Bauman once desribed intellectuals as people who have more power than they think they do, but not as much as they think they should have. I think that this nicely describes the position of US liberals and lefties as well.
Wojtek
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