Therefore posts which say "we" should or should not do this or that are serious nonsense. They seriously obscure the political reality of the United States at the present time.
Pure chat is always legitimate.
So what, in material reality, to say that "we" or "the left" should engage this or that more or less visible group among that 300 million? I mean, what are we talking about. Are people saying, for example, that if one is a leftists, one should spend one or two or x hours a week knocking on doors and when they opne saying, Are you a teabagger? and if the person says yes, say "I want to seriously engage with you."
Or does it mean, printing a one-page leaflet, and stand on a corner passing it out -- the leaflet would say, "If you are a teabagger I want to serioulsy engage with you.
What does it mean in terms of action. And if it doesn't mean action, what does it mean.
And do you mean that instead of searching out the half a million people in the U.S. who have negative feelings about the war and more or less positive feelings about public medical care we should talk to each other about teabaggers?
There are more than enough people in the U.S. whose passive opinions are rather far left to make a large public splash, potentially affect some public policy, if they were to achieve any sort of coherence as an actual "we." Why is no one interesed in them?
Incidentally, there is and will remain a solid far-right core and there is and will remain a substantial number of close sympathizers on the right that any time there ia a provocation (like, for example, a Black president, and anyone has a clever idea, they can be instantly mobilized because the media will help them and billionaires will help them and it doesn't take any damn organizing skill at all. And if leftists keep agonizing over that core onthe right, then leftists will be wasting their time. It is not going to get worse than tht core except under extrordfinary conditons, and nothing leftists, organized or unorganized, can do will decrease that core or change it. It is simply part of the social landscape you have to live with without going apeshit about it.
Carrol