On 2012-03-13, at 4:38 PM, c b wrote:
> Marv: If you're in politics to
>>> fundamentally transform the system of power and property relations, you'd
>>> say the differences are entirely inconsequential.
>
>
> ^^^^^
> CB: No, mature revolutionaries say the differences between Dems and
> Reps are very consequential in 2012. See reactinary tea Republicans
> in Michigan, Ohio, Indiana, Wisconsin, US House of Reps in full scale
> assault on working class, women, the 99% with only Dems standing
> between their efforts and giant steps backward, war on Iran, etc.
My point was that revolutionaries, "mature" or otherwise, have never seen the Democratic Party - a pro-capitalist party representing the liberal wing of the bourgeoisie - as any more of a vehicle for overthrowing capitalism than the Republican party. The CPUSA didn't orient to the DP in the 30's because it thought it could transform it into a Bolshevik party. It entered it mainly for strategic reasons: to be close to the mass of trade unionists and other progressives who supported the Democrats in the belief that they would inevitably come to recognize its shortcomings and would abandon it for the CP. Maybe the remnants of the CP have abandoned this theoretical perspective and now believe the Democratic party is one which can "fundamentally transform the system of power and property relations". You would know better.