For
43 years, since 1975, I’ve been a member, often a leader, of national
and local groups working to build a mass-based, progressive political
party. During all that time I’ve advocated for and acted upon an
approach which appreciates that there is little to no chance of
achieving such a thing—an organization actually capable of contending
for power electorally—without a significant percentage of grassroots
progressive Democrats deciding to be part of or support it.
Third
party efforts on the left over that time have borne out the soundness
of this approach. On the one hand, partisan, go-it-alone, Democrats-and-Republicans-are-
A
story in today’s New York Times, “Democrats Brace as Storm Brews Far to
Their Left,” reports that “about a sixth of Democratic congressional
nominees so far [in 2018 primaries] have a formal affiliation with one
of several important insurgent groups. Fifty-three of the 305 candidates
have been endorsed by the Justice Democrats, the Working Families
Party, the Progressive Change Campaign and Our Revolution, organizations
that have helped propel challenges to Democratic incumbents.”
The
Times writes about those 53 victories with some palpable relief that
it’s not more, that 5/6ths of the primary victors are less progressive,
more centrist, more corporate or some hybrid. But they do acknowledge
that this movement “promises to grow as a disruptive force in national
elections as younger voters reject the traditional boundary lines of
Democratic politics.”
I
am sure that some of those 53 Congressional nominees are not as radical
and consistent in their positions as, for example, Green Party
candidates. Some are, like Alexandria Ocasio-Cortes in the Bronx. But
there are no Green Party members of Congress, and there are very few, if
any, elected to state legislatures anywhere in the country. That is not
a good track record.
Click here for the full article.
Source: tedglick.com
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