[Marxism] In Defense of Harrington and American

[Louis Proyect]

Erik Carlos Toren wrote:
> And I might add that at a county level, at least in my experience in Texas, the DP and the RP do **not** even exist as political parties between elections. They only come "back to life" once the group of self-identified party members political elite put the money back in the machine. 
> 
>  • Por el Socialismo•
> «¤Erik¤»
> 

The closest you get to this sort of thing is something like the Upper 
West Side Reform Democrats Club that my friend Marty belonged to in the 
1980s. Marty is about 5 years older than me and was a member of the RCP 
in the 1970s and a serious Stalinist. I don't mean that in my usual 
pejorative sense but am just referring to the fact that he had the 
Collected Stalin on his bookshelf.

Around the time that Reagan was successful in pressuring Nicaragua to 
vote for the US-backed candidate, Marty got fed up with the club and 
quit. He told me that trying to get them to make the DP higher-up's more 
responsive to their opposition to Reagan's wars was an exercise in futility.

As soon as the Green Party got off the ground, he hooked up with them 
and switched to the Nader campaign when the Greens started functioning 
like the Upper West Side Reform Democrats Club.

My problem with working in the DP, speaking only for myself, is that 
under the best of circumstances like the Upper West Side club, you are 
dealing with a bunch of people who listen to NPR, watch PBS, take the NY 
Times op-ed page seriously, etc. I am afraid that I might lose control 
and kill one of them if I wasn't careful.