Jim Straub wrote:
>
> Well... we did influence the general public in the anti-war movement before
> the start of the war. The anti- movement then was big, it was growing, but
> it was not enough.
>
> Since then, tho, I think the left has been completely divorced from the
> general public's turn against the war.
I agree with the whole of this post but the wording of this part bothers me. I know Tom Hayden has made the claim that the anti-war movement can claim credit for the change in public perception, but I would think most leftists organizing in that movement are pretty conscious of the extremely low level of consciousness of most who now oppose the war now -- most of them do not even know that there _is_ a left, let alone be influenced by it. So what do you mean by the phrase "divorced from"? It doesn't seem to capture the simply reality that there has never been a marriage yet between lefists and general public, since there is no forum in which the two can meet. That is the task of leftists -- first to form themselves into A Left, then to create a public forum through which what they think can make any difference.
Carrol