tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2062509833711600070.post6257063848763046240..comments2024-01-19T04:00:42.885-05:00Comments on Permanent Revolution: Breaking bad: AOC and #forcethevoteAlex Steinerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09128453587484101609noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2062509833711600070.post-75404499110845589882021-01-28T10:50:44.052-05:002021-01-28T10:50:44.052-05:00peter, maybe Frank has a different answer, I think...peter, maybe Frank has a different answer, I think it's too soon to tell. It really depends on class composition, and also something like democratic centralism. Would the representatives of the peoples party have to answer to a program? The problem with the Squad is that they don't answer to anyone, and the DSA is not going to object because this is their success story, getting these people into congress. So, the peoples party might be a step forward to the extent that they are a clean break with the Democrats and also that they have something like democratic centralism, representatives need to be held to a program. I hope that however, they are not limited to electoralism, that they engage in other activities such as strikes, unionisation. Of course we really need a revolution ultimately, and does the People's Party believe in revolution? I'm not sure on that, and that might limit their political activities ultimately. For the Social Democrats like Luxemburg and Lenin participation in congress or parliament was a means to an end, to show that these institutions are inadequate for proletarian democracy, and to show ultimately the need for revolution.Markhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04624839910570059635noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2062509833711600070.post-63815146824821151692021-01-21T03:25:48.212-05:002021-01-21T03:25:48.212-05:00Dore, Kyle Kulinski, Justin Jackson, and other sup...Dore, Kyle Kulinski, Justin Jackson, and other supporters of Force the Vote are also involved with the Movement for a People's Party. Do you believe that this movement might evolve into a mass socialist movement, or at least be a significant step in that direction?peterhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16270618597642528041noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2062509833711600070.post-63859866110121197922020-12-29T19:24:35.871-05:002020-12-29T19:24:35.871-05:00Thank you Frank for a very insightful article.
#f...Thank you Frank for a very insightful article.<br /><br />#forcethevote is one of the more interesting developments in US politics recently because it's the first real test of the socialist oriented progressives in congress where they actually have some leverage. Perhaps it could be argued that progressives have already been tested and failed on things like the CARES act, however maybe that could be forgiven since they didn't have the numbers to force any issues. At the very least they could have voted against the act and exposed the political process and the upward transfer of wealth if they were at all consistent as social democrats. What exactly did they get in exchange for the votes and silence on the CARES act?<br /><br />Now the progressives have the leverage to put their proposals like M4A to a vote and the timing could not better given objective political terrain as Frank notes. If they fail to use that leverage, doesn't that call into question this whole premise of electing these progressives? That seems to be the gist of Dore's argument, and it ended up being much more revealing than perhaps he anticipated, just by the fact of who supports the #forcethevote campaign, who has come out against it, and who has remained silent. <br /><br />Notably in the silent category is Bernie Sanders who ran on M4A as his signature issue. Also in the silent category is the DSA, the DSA of course opportunistically embedded itself in Sanders campaign without differentiating what the DSA stands for and how Sanders might fall short of that measure. I think there is a question as to how much the DSA represents a real social democratic tendency. It should be remembered that while Russian and German social democracy had their conservative factions they also had revolutionary kernels around the figures of Lenin and Luxembourg respectively. I don't know the DSA well enough to say such factions don't exist, but it seems that as a whole the most conservative and opportunistic factions dominate the organization, hence the silence on the #forcethevote campaign and also the silence on Sanders' betrayal in endorsing Biden.<br /><br />Among the people against #forcethevote campaign are a host of 'progressive' media personalities such as Cenk Uygur and his network of The Young Turks. I think what this campaign has shown, that despite all their talk of what is strategic at a given moment, these personalities mostly align with conventional liberalism and the mainstream Democrats. Distinguishing between real progressive left media such as Dore and Gray and fake progressive media has been a useful side effect of this campaign.<br /><br />Finally, about the ambivalence of Jacobin, it seems as if they are still operating under the illusion that they could have some effect on pushing Biden to the left. At the same time that Sirota was denouncing the #forcethevote campaign as performative he was actively promoting the proposal that the Biden administration enact the expansion of Medicare by executive order, this happens to be one the five proposals he suggests in his Jacobin article. The strawmans of Burgis as well as Sirota's suggestion that Kevin McCarthy could become speaker call into question as to whether they are operating in good faith. It seems much of what they are saying is damage control on behalf of AOC and the others in the event that the issue of M4A is not forced to a floor vote.Markhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04624839910570059635noreply@blogger.com