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I also agree that it is good analysis about the limits Sanders faces. I
think all of the points he argues -- being thwarted by the DNC, being
expected to compromise with Congress and the Courts, and being expected to
water down all his proposals even if he doesn't want to compromise -- are
actual issues and there is no guarantee that Sanders will overcome any one
of them let alone all of them.
But the problem to me is I don't see anyone actually putting forward any
real-world organizing strategies. They also seem to discount the relevance
of the Sanders presidency for the sake of organizing moving forward. Others
have noted that U.S. history is replete with "left-wing" candidates vying
for the presidency and getting put in their place, like McGovern and Jesse
Jackson. But the part that I think they are missing are that those
candidacies happened at a time in which certain voter demographics were in
a better position and had much more to lose and less to gain given that the
effects of neoliberalism/austerity had not yet been implemented as
thoroughly as now. And more importantly, the people who make up Sanders'
army -- people who are under the age of 35 -- were not alive for those
events. Sanders is the first candidate running for President in my lifetime
(I'm 30) that has actually suggested socialist and anti-imperialist
politics, even if in watered down form. That was not true of Obama. And
even had it been, the reality was that Obama won his first term before the
financial crisis. The defining political events that are shaping the
consciousness of Millenials are the Iraq War, the financial crisis, and
ultimately the election of Trump. For an even younger bunch it is the
increasingly noticeable effects of climate change.
Seeing Sanders either being denied the nomination in a post-Trump era, or
being forced to compromise the aspects of his presidency that speak to
those issues (i.e. economic inequality, ending the wars, curbing right-wing
extremism and climate change) will probably do a lot more to discredit the
existing political machinery than anything else. In short, if he wins and
manages to put forward some meaningful changes ("socialism" not being one
of them), then great. But if he loses or wins but has his hands tied, I
think that will have a dramatic effect on the voter base and their ideas of
what kind of politics is needed. Already there are socialist clubs, DSA,
local protest movements (BLM, etc.). If these groups and community
associations become the basis for a sort of mass civil disobedience
movement, I imagine that being shown, explicitly, how far the existing
elite will go to prevent them from having any sort of democratic
representation via Sanders-style candidates will trigger the kinds of mass
popular mobilization that I think others would rather see.
Amith R. Gupta
On Tue, Mar 3, 2020 at 1:59 PM Louis Proyect via Marxism <
[email protected]> wrote:
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>
> Very sharp analysis by an Australian Marxist who puts the Sandernista
> crap in Greenleft to shame.
>
> https://redflag.org.au/node/7048
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