But from a minimally realistic perspective, the fate of DP candidates is a non-event. The importance of Wisconsin in any case is the impact it has had in local areas throughout the U.S. The Latino demonstrators in Georgia last month noted their 'kinship' to the Wisconsin struggle. A couple years ago when I suggested that a crucial demand by which one could identify the reappearance of A Left in the U.S. would be the demand for Open Borders! It was pointed out that probably that would turn off 98% of the population -- which at the time I thought was overly optimistic, my estimate being 99%. But it is becoming clear that local activists around the nation are increasingly identifying themselves with the struggles of the non-documented. We don't have, yet, anything that can definitely be termed "The Left," but we may have the faint beginning of one, marked not so much by Wisconsin itself but because of what might be called "Wisconsinism" bubbling through localities. Perhaps one could say that only 95% of the population would be turned off by the demand for Open Borders! When that estimate falls to 90%, we have a Left.
I am serious in claiming that "A Left" is something that only comes into existence episodically, and that either praise or criticism of "The Left" is not just incorrect but reactionary in the long intervals that separate those rare episodes.
And the form in which The Left appears probably never repeats itself. The single party, grounded in the strong union movement, for which Marv nostalgically dreams, will never appear again: But The Left Will.
Carrol
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