The article's most glaring factual error was the author's claim that there was a "good deal of historical bewilderment." As one of those in the first percentile of the age distribution (i.e., of participants at the Forum), a first-timer, and training in history, I had no such impression. Indeed, a historical perspective was one of those aspects of the Forum that I appreciated. The absence of many panels populated by historians, with no offense meant to the historians here, is no evidence that a historical perspective was absent. Birnbaum maintains that there was "a good deal of historical bewilderment" while holding that the "[t]he New Deal was much talked about at the forum."
But the most entertaining aspect of this article was his answer to the question "[w]hat do those to the left of the Democratic Party think, and what plausible course of political action can they now adopt?" His answer was that the participants of the Forum simply regurgitated the ideas of the "Socialist Scholars Conference of the sixties." Plainly, had he attended at least one the 25 (or so) panels on political and social movements, perhaps he drifted off to sleep: answers to his question were forthcoming at those panels.
Alas, what political conclusion does he offer the reader? "Perhaps the forum's people should consider new historical possibilities. Nearly 20 percent of the House of Representatives belongs to the Congressional Progressive Caucus--which needs energies and ideas from well beyond the members' districts. Yet I could find no trace of any contact to the caucus, or any other part of national government." In other words, it behooves the Left Forum to become an appendage of the Democrat party.
I did not expect anything but such dogma from the Nation, after all, it is their ideological lot in life to spout such nonsense.
Let me conclude with a political point about the Left Forum. By all means, let there be an internal critique of the Left Forum. But let's not criticize it out of the existence. It is, after all, one of the very few Left institutions that exist in the U.S. today.
epoliticus
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With more than 2,500 participants, more than 1,000 speakers, 200-plus panels, and three plenary sessions (as well as musical performances, art exhibits and film screenings) this year's Left Forum filled two-and-a-half days at Pace University in lower Manhattan. The Brooklyn Bridge towered over the scene, but there was, alas, little in the discussions to remind us of the monumental past of American radicalism. Mayor Michael Bloomberg's office was across the street, and the familiar injunction to the aggrieved, "Tell it to City Hall," did come to mind.
http://www.thenation.com/doc/20090511/birnbaum?rel=hp_picks