> ...It is naive nonsense to claim that to rally
> with DP masses one has to support DP candidates in elections.
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This is true, Carrol, insofar as it involves common actions around
extra-parliamentary issues with liberals and social democrats. When everyone
is organizing and demonstrating around a single issue like the war or
minority rights or social reforms like universal healthcare, it makes no
difference to the great majority who is marching under which banner, and, in
fact, the mood is usually one of great warmth and solidarity rather than
disunity.
But, between demonstrations, and if these issues find their way into the political arena - as they inevitably must - you cannot maintain the same relations and wage a common political struggle with liberals and social democrats if you set yourself in open and direct confrontation to the parties and leaders in which they still have confidence.
It might be a different situation when the tide is running strongly to the left and there are clear signs the ranks are prepared to break with their existing parties, but we have never experienced that, and in its absence, there is nothing unprincipled about keeping your red flag furled and proposing initiatives which seem reasonable to others and will not send them running away from you.
It's better to follow your advice and abstain from electoral politics altogether if you can't tempermentally do that than to appear to others as insulting or condescending and standing in the way of what they consider, rightly or wrongly, will help them reach their political goals. As I've remarked before, despite your ferocious rhetoric on these lists, I expect you're much more subtle and restrained in your political dealings with your DP-inclined fellow activists in Bloomington. You would have to be.
Apologies for overposting.