> so where do you stand on third party politics...?
This is probably obvious to readers here, but I'll state it anyway:
What is essential for the U.S. left -- and, underlying it, for the U.S. working people -- is not just *that* we unite. Just as essential is *how* we unite. To really build a robust, independent political force, our unity has to result organically, from an honest and -- hence -- prolonged process of collective self discovery, trial and error, etc. We have to gradually come to the realization that we share a common interest and, therefore, a common political fate, not through presumed revelation or mechanical imposition of one's truth upon others, but via each one's own experience and reflection. Because we come at this from very different angles.
Consider the case of immigrant workers. A few years ago, I was in a meeting with a Catholic group of Mexican and Central American workers involved in the 2006 marches and all that. Part of the discussion was basic chores and organizing. The higher end of the political discussion was about the difficulty of timing the U.S. political process, because the electoral and legislative tempos are very important to them, in terms of their ability and willingness to mobilize, which depends on how immigrants collectively feel they can affect policy in ways that make a difference to them. They feel they can only affect the process from the outside, which is very frustrating. Individually, they influence and are influenced by relatives and "paisanos" who are citizens, but they are outsiders in the process. Still, they try to affect it collectively, at a very high cost. They cannot be Republican, Democrat, or Independent. So, how would their movement fit into an insurrection within the Democratic Party? How can they build permanent political formations that may advance their interests through the thick and thin of the electoral, legislative and executive processes? If you add their own internal diversity and urgent needs (jobs!), you see how hard the challenges they face are.
So, back to your question, I have no problem with third party politics as an approach for people who may start that way, e.g. young people, etc. Or for people who, in particular places, are ready to challenge the two parties. At this point though, absent a nation-wide mass movement to energize it, the effort on third party politics has to be local. I have a NY friend who's been in Vermont lately, because he's heavily involved with organizing the VT chapter of the Working Families Party. I admire and support his work. I'm not sure how many young people will feel attracted to that kind of organizing work in mass, but people have to try things out. So, in principle, third party politics is fine.
The arguments I had were with people who dismissed the struggles within the Democratic Party, electoral politics, etc. as a matter of principle. I guess Shane Mage encapsulates their thesis when he says primary struggles within the Democratic Party *are* (not "have been" or "may be" or "are most likely to be" but "are") a blind alley. It seems to me that, if such approach had been pushed up to its ultimate consequences, we would be witnessing a rupture within the Democratic Party. To the extent this chasm exists (in embryo), that's because of those who within the party have kept up the struggle, because the (embryonic) chasm owes very little to nay-saying from what I call the superficially radical left.
So, where I come from, that notion of dismissing the actual struggles of the bulk of the politically active segment of the class is misguided. Because, if you look at the big picture, for the time being, most working people in the U.S. who may wind up doing left-wing politics in the foreseeable future can only come from the Democratic Party. I've said it here before: their first impulse is not going to be to discard a political formation they've used before with mixed results (if the results were not mixed, they would not be supporting the Democrats to start with), but to reform it. You can tell them, while supporting and encouraging their struggles, that their chances of reforming the party are slim. The difficulties of reforming anything are always easy to pinpoint. What you cannot do is deny that their struggle is very legitimately a part of the process of building the U.S. left.