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First, I should make clear: I have been a DSA member for well over a year now. I point that out to say that I am not one to try to isolate myself in order to be "right" or pure. Joaquin Bustelo's arguments are based on several points. The first, and most important one is his comment that DSA "is, in essence, the seedling of a worker's party, a class party, a self-and-other identified political expression of a social force." He continues by pointing out that a political party is "not necessarily and mostly not an electoral machine... but rather in a more general sense, a side in a dispute or argument..." What Bustelo ignores, though, is the fact that DSA is not run as an organization that is independent of the Democrats. I am not referring to just organizationally (although that's bad enough), but programmatically in terms of the issues it takes up. The overwhelming main focus has been on single payer health care. Why? Because the liberal wing of the Democrats has made a strategic decision that a focus on that will lead them back into the majority in 2018 and into the White House in 2020. Now, a wing of the Democrats is accepting the "abolish ICE" slogan, so DSA has taken up that slogan. As far as health care, DSA has taken up the single payer slogan with a complete refusal to even hint at the shortcomings of single payer (that it will lead to increased hospital consolidation <https://oaklandsocialist.com/2017/07/06/us-health-care-single-payer-or-socialized-medicine/> and therefore increased closings) or even a hint at the need for socialized medicine. Why? Because the Democratic Party liberals won't touch that idea. Equally significant is the fact that there is not a hint that the Democrats have proven over and over again that they will not bring single payer into existence, even if and when they have a majority in both houses and have the presidency. In other words, far from developing a conflict with the Democrats, the DSA leadership is increasing illusions in them. So, what the DSA leadership is doing is using DSA to mobilize millenials (mainly) to campaign for liberal Democrats and their program. Bustelo also claims that there are a couple of different parties within the Democratic Party. No, as Jesse Jackson pointed out back in the '80s, a bird needs two wings to fly and, implicitly, he was the left wing of that bird that enabled the Democratic Party to lift off. It is no different today. The Democrats play a somewhat different role from the Republicans. One of their main roles is to channel opposition to the program of Corporate America into a safe political channel, away from working class independence. They cannot do that without the liberal wing. That this means some conflict within the Democratic Party is simply part of the cost of doing business (or politics). John Reimann -- *“In politics, abstract terms conceal treachery.” *from "The Black Jacobins" by C. L. R. James Check out:https:http://oaklandsocialist.com also on Facebook _________________________________________________________ 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
