On Sat, 10 May 2008, Julio Huato wrote:
>> If I were to give a serious answer to Charles's question it'd be to
>> organize around specific issues, like single-payer health care, both
>> to achieve the specific goal and to build a movement, and forget (for
>> now) the presidency. The president of the U.S. is, as the Sparts like
>> to say, the chief executive of the world bourgeoisie. That's not an
>> office we should be focusing on
>
> But the people who demand specific solutions, like single-payer health
> care, don't seem to think so. People for single-payer health care may
> *not* want to forget the presidency. They may want both and.
Sure, and we wouldn't stop them. But Doug's point -- with which I agree -- is that the purpose of a left is to move politics to the left. And you do that from outside the political process, by building a movement that exerts force on politicians. It doesn't mean you don't care who gets elected. It means you care more about how you can influence them before and after they get elected, when the real decisions are made. It means leftists should put their energy into creating something that changes the discourse and that politicians have to take notice of. Elections, from our point of view, are mainly the expression and ratification of the constellation of social and political forces. Real politics is about changing that constellation. And it's a defining belief of the left that mostly that's not done by politicians; that mostly they are the acted upon, not the actors; that real change is produced by social movements.
That isn't to say that winning an election doens't take tons of effort. Of course it does; anything competitive with high stakes does. But that's the whole point. The left shouldn't be putting it main effort into that. We should leave most of that running to liberals. That's their role in the division of labor. It's what excites them, its what they're good at. And in the end it defines them: if you spend most of your political energy trying to affect the outcome of elections, then FBOW, you're a liberal.
And they have their role to play in the scheme. But what we're missing is a pressure from the left. We have some lobbyists. What we're missing is a movement. And without something that people participate in and identify with on a large national scale, there isn't a national left. And there can't be a change in the worldview of the country. That doesn't come from above.
Michael