>The real question here is not what is
>wrong with the DP (both Doug Henwood
>and Carrol Cox have explained that
>numerous times here anyway) but what
>is wrong with American progressives,
>who seem incapable of learning from
>experience.
Fear of the Republicans is one answer to that question. It was mentioned earlier Obama telling bankers that's he's the only one standing between them and men with pitchforks. To borrow the analogy, so many progressives are convinced that he's the only thing that stands between them and a Klan member in the White House. And all of the Obama euphoria in 2008 was simply relief to be rid of Bush (though that doesn't excuse looking the other way when Obama does the same thing). It's a pretty tight cycle and I think to break it, progressives need to stop being incapacitated by their fear of Republicans, which would mean putting Dems on par with Repubs. Because Obama is right; the system is such that any leftwing challenge to the Dems would probably put the GOP in power and even if the Dems lose a presidential election, as in 2000, there's no guarantee that they'll automatically move to the left. -- James Patrick Leveque MSc Student in Comparative & General Literature School of Literatures, Languages and Cultures University of Edinburgh