You joke but I think a lot of leftists online unironically believe this.
And I’m not even saying armed revolution is necessarily off the table - but it’s certainly not what we try first or even second or third for that matter.
I think you might be thinking about things the wrong way if you’ve identified capitalism as a root problem and the solution is anything other than a revolution. How else are you dealing with it?
OTOH I agree with your main point that participating in the existing political system with cadre candidates is necessary. But their main purpose is to funnel people into revolutionary organizations, moreso than wielding power directly because we don’t expect the existing political system to be useful to that end.
I am pro revolution for sure BUT we must be pragmatic with how we approach it - no bourgeoise capitalist system has ever been reformed away but the revolution will not happen over night. I also completely agree on the candidates’ purpose - whether they are winning their races or not, and I do think we can win races, the main job needs to be agitation to bolster the ranks of the organized masses.
I will admit, we are getting onto our second or third option at this point, but people calling for armed revolution do not truly understand the impact that would have on society in the short term, and also how insanely difficult to impossible that idea actually is in modern American society. Democratic socialist ideas are only just starting to gain support now because liberalism has proven to be so ineffectual for long and it is a potential electoral path to start course correcting.
You joke but I think a lot of leftists online unironically believe this.
And I’m not even saying armed revolution is necessarily off the table - but it’s certainly not what we try first or even second or third for that matter.
I think you might be thinking about things the wrong way if you’ve identified capitalism as a root problem and the solution is anything other than a revolution. How else are you dealing with it?
OTOH I agree with your main point that participating in the existing political system with cadre candidates is necessary. But their main purpose is to funnel people into revolutionary organizations, moreso than wielding power directly because we don’t expect the existing political system to be useful to that end.
I am pro revolution for sure BUT we must be pragmatic with how we approach it - no bourgeoise capitalist system has ever been reformed away but the revolution will not happen over night. I also completely agree on the candidates’ purpose - whether they are winning their races or not, and I do think we can win races, the main job needs to be agitation to bolster the ranks of the organized masses.
I will admit, we are getting onto our second or third option at this point, but people calling for armed revolution do not truly understand the impact that would have on society in the short term, and also how insanely difficult to impossible that idea actually is in modern American society. Democratic socialist ideas are only just starting to gain support now because liberalism has proven to be so ineffectual for long and it is a potential electoral path to start course correcting.