> But to lapse into uncharacteristic seriousness for just a moment....
> I really do think that any attachment to the Democratic
> Party on the part of Lefties is quite damaging and destructive.
> There may not be much one can do about it, but to the extent
> that a bit of ridicule and mockery might help reclaim
> some poor soul, wandering off into the Great Grimpen Mire
> of the Democratic Party after the ignis-fatuus
> of a "progressive" American empire, one feels obliged to
> do what little one can.
The evangelical hymn was appropriate, because this is an evangelical approach to politics. It's about saving souls - but who cares about saving souls? Surely, as someone who admires Marx, you can see that businesses can't be brought to be nice to workers through moralism; consumers can't be brought to use less carbon through moralism; and by the same measure, leftists can't be brought by moralism not to vote for the Democrats. In each case people behave as they do not because they've failed to see the light on the shore, but because of the structural situation they are in. Lesser-evilism isn't a sinful lifestyle, it's a structural condition in which we find ourselves. If we want to work our way out of this situation, moralizing -- and worse, ridicule and invective -- won't help. Only strategy will. I don't have a twelve-point plan for this, but if such a plan existed it would surely involve, at some stage, working with Democrats, both elected ones and rank-and-filers.
SA