> One
> can and often should bargain with enemies, but that is pointless given
> the present weakness of the left -- or rather its non-existence as a
> coherent entity. Our concern is to build a left for the years to come;
> that is what our hope needs to be focused on. Piddling around looking
> for how we can directly affect current policy is a dereliction of duty.
Is this the sort of thing that's gotten you tagged as a pessimist, Carrol? If so, I must be a pessimist too, much to my own surprise. Because this just seems like obvious common sense to me -- though as my grandma used to say, common sense is not really all that common.