---------- Forwarded message ----------
> From: Bhaskar Sunkara <bhaskar.sunkara at gmail.com>
> To: lbo-talk at lbo-talk.org
> Date: Wed, 15 Jun 2011 18:54:28 -0400
> Subject: Re: [lbo-talk] Politics vs the DP
> This is utter bullshit. There seems to be some obfuscation about what the
> Democratic Party is and a tendency to portray them as being more powerful
> and more coherent than they really are. It's only even a party in the
> broadest sense. What old Trots would call "independent class
> representation" for workers is as necessary today, as ever. But let's not
> lose sight of the fact that to the degree that the working class is
> politically active, it's often as DP activists. And you could call this
> "false consciousness," or label it as collusion with the "main enemy"...
> but
> it makes sense given the conditions on the ground in America and the
> posture
> leftists adopt towards the DP needs to take this into account and also
> recognize the diversity within the party.
>
Sorry, Bhaskar, but as someone whom have battled conservative Democrats in my home state of Louisiana for the past 30 or so years, I have to call YOUR bullshit.
Sure, most working class folk tend to be Democratic Party rank and file, because that pretty much is the only alternative available within the existing party system...but that does NOT excuse the basic fact that the Democratic Party establishment is so utterly dependent on corporatists and the more moderate-conservative wing of the military-industrial-corporate complex that they are totally incapable of meeting the true needs of working people or people of color. The only reason they seem "liberal" is that they are compared to the TeaPublicans, who have been consolidating themselves further and further to the Right with every election from Goldwater on forward.
And yeah, there may be "diversity" within the Democratic Party...but that diversity stems from a total lack of political and visionary discipline, which allows Blue Dogs like Mary Landrieu and Evan Bayh, pro-Zionist liberals like Anthony Weiner and Barney Frank, and "progressives" like John Conyers and Nancy Pelosi to coexist within the same party. And yet, it is still the Third Way/DLC Democrats, who are closest to the ruling class ideology, reinforced by the monopoly power of the corporate media, which ultimately holds sway.
That is why Anthony Weiner is now toast, while Bill Clinton was defended to the hilt for far worse offenses.
Accepting the terms of the game set by people who want to kill you will never get you anywhere. An Independent Left, organized in legitimate Left principles and armed (figuratively speaking) to defend themselves against the antics of the Right AND the Center can ultimately do far more damage than merely fellow-travelling in the Democratic Party. That ship has sialed and sunk so many times.
Anthony