cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ml/post/22241305
Jessica Corbett
Nov 06, 2024“While the Democratic leadership defends the status quo, the American people are angry and want change,” said the Vermont Independent. “And they’re right.”
cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ml/post/22241305
Jessica Corbett
Nov 06, 2024“While the Democratic leadership defends the status quo, the American people are angry and want change,” said the Vermont Independent. “And they’re right.”
It’s not pragmatic to lose, for what it’s worth. We know that reform is impossible, and Bernie likely knows too. You’re correct that had the Democrats run on a progressive anti-genocide Social Democratic platform, they would have won, but that’s not what their donors want and need.
Marxism is vindicated by the passage of time.
The “reform is impossible” is a self-fulfilling prophesy because it leads leftists to never try to get involved in the party, which means they’ll never get a seat at the table, which means they’ll never be able to steer the party.
I certainly can’t prove that the influence of big money can ever be overcome within the party by grassroots organization, but you also can’t prove that it’s impossible (you can only prove that it’s difficult, which is something I certainly won’t dispute).
You certainly can’t prove that a true socialist movement will ever gain traction in America. It seems like the general public is so brainwashed they would rather be indentured servants of large corporations than lift a single finger to seize the means of production.
So we’re left with two unprovable paths to consider, and here’s the thing: the two paths are not mutually exclusive. Leftists can try both at the same time with neither being disruptive to the other. So this is the pragmatism: consider all possibilities and put the eggs into more than one basket.
Leftists cannot practice Entryism in the Democratic Party, due to its structure. The DNC is a machine used to filter out radicals and protect pro-establishment politicians that secure the funding from donors the DNC needs to exist. It is not a Leftist Party, and cannot be a Leftist Party.
Secondly, the concept of “brainwashing” is flawed. The ideas people find acceptable are determined by their social consciousness, as Capitalism deteriorates and Imperialism begins to crack, workers are increasingly turned towards organization and revolutionary Socialism.
I highly recommend reading Reform or Revolution by Rosa Luxemburg, she put to pen why reform is a sisyphean task. Reading theory really needs to be taken more seriously.