[Marxism] On the Democratic Party question

[Marvin Gandall]

Louis wrote:

Because without the Cynthia McKinney's, the Democratic Party would cease
to play the role that it does. You need some concessions to labor, to
Blacks and Latinos, and to women in order to keep the contraption
together.
=====================================
Louis is quite right. The DP would quickly disappear if it did not make
"some concessions to labor, tp Blacks and Latinos, and to women..." He could
add to this list the great majority of antiwar, environmental, gay, and
seniors' groups who also look to the Democrats for some relief and
protection.

That is exactly the point.

Louis' mistake is in believing this situation would change if only the
Cynthia McKinneys would leave the Democrats. But she is more a reflection
than a cause of the DP's attraction to these constituencies. They look to
the DP not because they are somehow "misguided", but because they correctly
perceive it to be the only available means they have in this period to
defend their gains against right-wing assaults, and to perhaps add to these
gains. While some individuals might be drawn to a more straight-talking
Camejo or a Nader or a Green party slate led by McKinney, so long as there
exists no US third party with even the limited national representation of
Canada's NDP, the groups they belong to will not vote in any significant
numbers for them. It's worth recalling also that Canada's CCF/NDP, like all
third parties, was born in protest, and has stagnated through 70 years of
capitalist stability since then.

It's naive, therefore, to think that the exhortations of Carrol, Mark, and
others that electoral politics is a waste of time, that the focus should
should be on demonstrations and other forms of protest, and that there is no
difference between the two parties, will carry much weight with the
progressive sectors of the population.

In fact, they act on entirely contrary assumptions: that demonstrations are
an adjunct to political action, not a subsitute for it; that legislative,
regulatory, and judicial outcomes are not irrelevant to their interests;
that these outcomes are shaped by the political composition of these
agencies; and that they have more to lose with Republicans rather than
Democrats in control of them. Anyone interested in influencing the direction
of contemporary politics today necessarily has to begin with that starting
point, which may be why a large part of this generation of Western
leftists - which sought fundamental changes to capitalist power and property
relations - has effectively dropped out of politics, including those who are
still going through the motions outside the two-party system.

Anyway, there has been much talk Cynthia McKinney has been think of heading
a Green slate so Louis' proposition may soon be put to the test.