The policy of support to lesser evil bourgeois parties is a legacy of the Popular Frontism of the CPs in the 1930s. Rather than honestly urge their members and sympathizers to “Vote Democrat”, “lesser evil/Stop fascism at all costs!” was more acceptable to their left wing; it sounded more realistic and even radical. But as many of us have experienced with fighters we have known and respected, even those calling themselves Marxists who buy into this approach, can never climb out of the hole they’ve stepped into. They’re trapped.
The US ruling class is anything but stupid (despite the current occupant of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue). As long as the “progressive” Democrats stop a few inches short of the Republicans’ march to the right, they can always claim to be that “lesser”, and once leftists buy into it, where else can they go in the name of “realism.?” Many leftists over the decades, starting for me with supporters of “All the way with LBJ” in 1964, culminating with panicked support for Genocide Joe last year, have succumbed to this deal with the devil, and they wind up working and identifying as Democrats, rather than the leftists they started out to be; transformed into their dialectical opposite. So in answer to the question of “any regrets” – those of us who have resisted the powerful pressure to capitulate can proudly stand as a positive example for younger activists of loyalty to principle over short term popularity. Those who have basically abandoned Marxism should be the ones with regrets, although they can never bring themselves to do that; they would be politically discrediting themselves and bankrupting their activism. They carry a life sentence of covering themselves with pitiful excuses and slander for those who remind them of the principled and gutsy fighters they once were! Dennis Brasky On Sun, Dec 14, 2025 at 12:38 PM John Reimann via groups.io <1999wildcat= [email protected]> wrote: > I've been reading the few non-responses to my question, so let me ask it > again: > > There were multiple socialist groups and individuals who last year focused > their attacks on Biden/Harris and said little or nothing to warn about the > dangers of Trump/MAGA. Does anybody know of any of those groups or > individuals expressing regret for their approach? > > > -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Groups.io Links: You receive all messages sent to this group. View/Reply Online (#39720): https://groups.io/g/marxmail/message/39720 Mute This Topic: https://groups.io/mt/116740237/21656 -=-=- POSTING RULES & NOTES #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived. #3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern. #4 Do not exceed five posts a day. -=-=- Group Owner: [email protected] Unsubscribe: https://groups.io/g/marxmail/leave/13617172/21656/1316126222/xyzzy [[email protected]] -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
