> >The question is how to create a political party -- including but not at all > limited to electoral vehicles -- that is truly an effective political > expression of the already left-wing sentiments of American workers. > > That is just to say that party already exists, in the sense that the leaders > and members already exist, it's just a question of stitching it together. > For that you need a core team which solicits the cooperation of specialists > in different fields, and then you gradually bring in the other people from a > base in some cities. My guess is that the main problem is too many people > who are too dogmatic and backward-looking, they dispute programmatically in > a way which makes it too difficult for people to work together and join, > they operate a language that ordinary people don't want to hear or cannot > make sense out of, and they spend too much time questioning the validity of > the experience of other people, rather than utilising it. > > J. > But how does one get the ball rolling on the practical level? In the US the system is set up to stifle any third party. The greens have gained a little ground, but for the most part nobody pays attention to the small parties. I think a better solution would be to infiltrate a larger party. Here in Minnesota, the primaries are operated under the caucus system. Only the ideologically driven show up to the caucus meetings, and thus our Republican candidates are more to the right than most Republicans, and our Democratic candidates are more to the left than most other Democrats. I think that the left could be more effective in policy change if it wasn't trying to fight the system from the outside. If more leftists showed up to Democratic caucus meetings, we could overwhelm the vote and elect a truly progressive candidate.
Benjamin
