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On 5/26/16 6:50 PM, Douglas Medina wrote:
Louis, I think it's useful to draw a line of distinction between the Sanders campaign and the Democratic Party. Many people on this list I am sure share the sentiment: "fuck the Democratic Party!" I am squarely in that camp. The Sanders campaign, on the other hand, has done what the left has not been able to do in a very long time, probably since the 1960s. Namely, shift the terms of political debate in a new direction that points to the federal government as a force for improving people's lives through concrete public policies. Two of those policies are government funded higher education at public universities and health care--the main pieces in his platform. If Sanders did not run as a Democrat, he would not be getting the national attention he has gotten thus far.
Yes, every generation especially in a period of crisis such outliers surface. I have been swamped by other reading/writing projects but I hope to get back to "Campaign of the Century" at some point, a really fantastic book on the Upton Sinclair EPIC campaign. A life-long socialist, Sinclair ran as a Democrat feeling that FDR was "something different". Both the Trump and Sanders campaign reflect the frustration of ordinary people with business as usual. They have to be understood dialectically. Both are deeply resented by the parties in whose name they run but at the same time function as their pressure valves. The McGovern campaign was something along those lines as the introduction of superdelegates in his aftermath reflects. In any case, I have written two articles already in the guise of Sanders announcing his run as an independent so I feel a but put off by the nonsite editorial claiming that this is "ultraleft". I am a lot of terrible things but ultraleftism is not one of them.
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