Jim Devine wrote: > > Shane wrote: > >> The "inside" of the Dumbocratic Party--a "party" with > >> no members--is even harder to find than the "struggle" > >> within it > > Julio: > > If the DP is such an empty shell, then why do you even bother taxing > > your brain with such an ingenious wordplay? Isn't that an overkill? > > It's obvious to me that the DP isn't an "empty shell." It's a > coalition of political organizations and interest groups.
It's not just the DP; both parties are in a real sense somethng like an "empty shell," There are various coalitions that, at election time, support the candidates who choose the DP as the 'shell' through which they shall run for audience. But there is no membership and no party policy. Neither voting for the candidates nor contributing money nor even running for office as a Democrat makes one a member of an organization on which one might exert influence. U.S. parties are pretty ghostly entities and it is hard to identify just what their existence consists in. There may be more _appearance_ of coherence in the RP -- but that coherence has no internal structure. Contrast European parties with a membership, etc. Carrol It's more > than the standard organization we see on the near-left, i.e., those > with a staff and a mailing list, that's always soliciting funds and > then distributing them and doesn't do much else: the DP actually has > to run electoral campaigns. The DP is mostly dominated by the elected > & appointed officials (and their staffs) and the main sources of > donations. There's a serious rank and file of professional Democrats, > i.e., those who not only generally accept the somewhat vague > principles of the DP but also want jobs in the various Party apparati > and in government. There's also a halo of non-professionals who > identify with the DP (and usually vote for it). There's also a bunch > of organizations such as what's left of organized labor, which allies > with DP efforts, scratching the Party's back in return for hopes that > the Party will scratch theirs. > > The GOP does have much more coherence, both in organization and > ideology. Perhaps the DP is an empty shell only in the sense that it > doesn't live up to (or down to) the GOP's standards. The DP also isn't > coherent relative to "Leninist" parties. > > -- > Jim Devine / "Segui il tuo corso, e lascia dir le genti." (Go your own > way and let people talk.) -- Karl, paraphrasing Dante. > _______________________________________________ > pen-l mailing list > [email protected] > https://lists.csuchico.edu/mailman/listinfo/pen-l _______________________________________________ pen-l mailing list [email protected] https://lists.csuchico.edu/mailman/listinfo/pen-l
