[lbo-talk] weimar shadows

[brad bauerly]

While I haven't argued that we should 'reach out' to the tea-baggers I do
feel that we should not speculate on their material make-up and/or cast them
as monolithic.  The very fact that there is no strong left movement in the
US means that there is no basis for an analysis that could offer an
alternative to the illogic of the tea-gang.  I am not saying that they are
all working class or even that any of them are, however their influence on
the popular culture and political climate in the US is real and emerges from
their prominence and the lack of a left alternative.  Again, to be clear, I
am not stating that the members of the tea-baggers (if they are member
driven) are convertible if only we reach out to them.  Instead we need to
understand popular culture as the sight of struggle (I was reading
Stuart Hall last night).  And I am saying that there are some who, due to a
lack of left analysis and politics, will accept some of the illogic of the
tea-gang.  So, rather than dismiss them with snide comments on their being
'shits' or stupid or constituted entirely of petty bourgeois, it would be
wiser to actually engage with their arguments and in the process offer
alternatives.  This of course does require a left movement that in part is
not inward looking or sectarian but is open and patient- with none of
the casting of all others as stupid and wrong that occurs so often in the
Trotsky sects and is latent in many of the recent discussions here.

Brad