^^^^ CB: There is something reminiscent of the 1848 " spectre" that "haunt(ed) Europe" in all these faux socialisms suddenly "arising" in the US ; as in the campaign when McCain et. al. accused O of socialism ; and then the Wall Street bailout was termed "socialist" by the right-wing. The bourgeois unconscious says "there _is_ an alternative". Hopefully, the next socialism will come as comedy ( a party of a new, new type) , not tragedy.
It's dialectical no doubt, that with the Soviet Union out of the way, America socialism can come out of the closet.
At this moment, Marxists must revisit Marx, Engels and Lenin's discussions of the _objective tendencies_ in capitalism toward socialism. Time for the US left fellow travellers to ditch all the silly snickers about Marxist usages such as "objective conditions and tendencies", "objective forces" and the like. There's a spectre haunting the US left: the Spectre of Marxism-Leninism.
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