[lbo-talk] Bernie Sander's "saving democracy" amendment

[Carrol Cox]

I find this thread a bit peculiar, in so far as the conversation implicitly
assumes that the Sanders Amendment might actually become part of the
Constitution. The result is that the whole discussion becomes purely
'academic,' detached from actual political activity.

What is the actual political impact of Sanders' proposal? NOT the political
effect it would have if  incorporated into the Constitution but the
political impact of the proposal existing as atopic of conversation early in
an election year one of the features of which is that for the first time  in
over 40 years serious (or at least potentially serious) alternatives to
electoral politics exist. My assumption would be that the proposal will
disappear after Election Eve, 2012, for it will no longer have any impact on
current activity. The key feature of the proposal does not lie in its
content but in its call for people to engage in active support of it. That
is, it packages a passive return to the coziness of electoral politics while
appearing to be part of the incipient mass movement. It is just one more
disguise of the argument that Politics consists of elections, elections, and
nothing else.

That makes the arguments for or against the proposal (considered as a
possible part of the constitution) exist only in an apolitical realm of
seminar discussion.

Carrol