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But to answer Fred's thought experiment, neither Sanders nor Warren have themselves shown any indication of any interest in either trying to rout the neoliberals in the Democratic Party or of breaking with it. And, if they did, I don't know what influence we could have over it, given the character of the DP. And I don't primarily mean less the old (but legitimate) question of the class character of its political positions or power structure but its essential character. That is, since it isn't a membership party, no current in the voter base has any real definitive voice over anything the party does or says . . . and only a limited consumer satisfaction kind of voice in who the candidates are going to be. So, there's no mechanism for effectively challenging the dominant powers in the party . . . which is why those who try to do so eventually either give up or get absorbed into it. What this means is that--looking at the other alternative--if you did have a break from the Democrats, what would we be breaking? Not members. At best, perhaps, a handful of progressive figures could lead those non-member voter consumers into shifting their consumer preference to another party formation in which they will not be members and over which they will exercise no power. The Green Party has already provided an example of what this would look like. It's surely better than what we have and anything that breaks down the peculiar madness of the American two-party system with a non-capitalist option is welcome. Supporting the Greens for where it might lead might have made sense at some point, but--after long years of it--we've probably seen how far it can go. And if we already have one, why would we build a strategy around constructing another Green Party? Believe me, I wish we had a clearer answer. But I"m confident that we have long known what has not provided us an answer. Solidarity! Mark L. _________________________________________________________ Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm Set your options at: http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
