On Aug 7, 2007, at 12:10 PM, Jeffrey Fisher wrote:
> right. i don't disagree, at least not very significantly (a dime's
> worth of
> disagreement? :-), but the logic seems pretty inexorable, to me.
> when was
> the last time we saw a party build itself from the bottom up? the
> local-state model certainly hasn;'t worked for the GP on the
> national level.
> they can't even get someone elected to the US congress.
Part of their problem seems to be their pathological localism, and their sectarianism, which rivals the Trots'.
> the people who seem to have had some success this way are the
> christian
> coalition, but (a) that's different, in that they were working
> within the
> GOP, and (b) it's not clear to me that they're not an exception in
> other
> ways, as well. shouldn't we all be running commies and socialists
> as Dem
> candidates at the state and local levels?
I'm all for that. Division of labor, fight on many fronts, etc.
By the way, I was reminded on The Nation cruise that it's easy for us to minimize the diff between the parties, but a lot of people in the USA don't have that luxury. Quite a few of the cruisers came because they wanted to spend some time with people who think like they do. Back home, they may be one or two of ten Democrats (and forget anything to the left of the Dems). And - forgive me for using the color cliches - step out of any blue zone and you're quickly immersed in red. Drive 35 miles west of Ann Arbor and you're at Ted Nugent's ranch. Drive a few hours east of Seattle or Portland and you're in far right territory. Drive 50 miles north of Cambridge and you're on the doorstep of the Manchester Union-Leader. Etc.
Doug