[lbo-talk] How come nobody talks about the New socialist senator

Michael Hoover mhhoover at gmail.com
Wed Nov 8 17:23:17 PST 2006


On 11/8/06, tfast <tfast at yorku.ca> wrote:
> Was quite amazing that the first ever socialist senator in US history was
> elected last night and nobody is talking about it even on LBO. Now I am not
> saying that Sanders' victory signals the death knell of capitalism or even a
> more left friendly US. But the fact he won should at least merit some
> mention. And you would think that some discussion of how he managed it
> would seem to be appropriate given all the hand wringing that is done on
> this list about the failure of the left. How did Sanders do it? Are there
> any lessons for would be electoral leftists from Saunders success?
> Travis W Fast
<<<<<>>>>>

vermont has only one u.s. house member, that member has been sanders for 7-8 terms, so he's been running state-wide campaigns for quite some time...

principal reason - in my opinion - that there is little comment re. sanders' victory is that a number (a lot? many? most?) self-identified socialists do not consider sanders a socialist...

now, he calls himself one, and he always makes a big deal about referring to himself as an independent socialist, which a long-ago acquaintance of mine said was an oxymoron...

sanders' presence in the u.s. senate will not make one bit of political/policy difference, he will caucus with the dems as he as done during his time in the u.s. house...

on other hand, he is certainly deserving of mention, if only because presence of socialists in most elected national parliaments is commonplace...

michael hoover, reporting live from jackson, ms where: public school bond measure won yesterday with 80%+ of the vote, support was overwhelming even in predominantly affluent white ward #1, pretty significant outcome for this area...

jackson population is about 70% african-american, about 28% white...jackson student population is about 97% black, 2% white...most white jackson parents who didn't/haven't gone to the suburbs in the last several decades send their kids to one of the many private prep schools/academies around here...



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