If Sanders supporters are really building a movement for radical change--which I approve--why do they act so much like a consumer fandom? 1
— Dale Carrico (@dalecarrico) January 30, 2016
What new institutions are they creating and what will make them effective and last? 2
— Dale Carrico (@dalecarrico) January 30, 2016
How do they connect to existing partisan formations like the PCCC, CBC, Urban League, Emily's List & real movements like BlackLivesMatter? 3
— Dale Carrico (@dalecarrico) January 30, 2016
As someone who actually studies revolutionary history and affirms the revolution of conscience in nonviolent resistance movement I wonder 4
— Dale Carrico (@dalecarrico) January 30, 2016
...why so many Bernie supporters seem to think voting for a Presidential candidate is a revolutionary act. 5
— Dale Carrico (@dalecarrico) January 31, 2016
After a generation of techbros selling us crap apps and technofixes as Revolution now berniebros sell a celebrity DreamPrez as Revolution. 6
— Dale Carrico (@dalecarrico) January 31, 2016
My point is not to disdain Revolution or even Bernie Sanders, who is a fine Senator and progressive lion... 7
— Dale Carrico (@dalecarrico) January 31, 2016
...but to resist the denigration of the revolutionary represented by the mis-recognition of a partisan primary contest as a revolution. 8
— Dale Carrico (@dalecarrico) January 31, 2016
1 comment:
A lot of this I think comes down to some genuine weaknesses of what passes for a left in America. There's a sense that the One Big Moment will change everything--and the inevitable disappointment that follows. And it's a bit disturbing because in many ways it tends to cult of personality. So in 2008, lots of people tricked themselves into believing that Obama was an anti-interventionist social democrat (by studiously avoiding reading any of his platform), while Mark Morford was saying that he was a Light Worker. People swooned at his speeches, and at his election, people rejoiced that they were going to Change America for good. And then, he turned out to be a bog-standard Democrat, everyone lost interest or got all huffy, and the GOP rode to power in a historic wave election in 2010.
And honestly, even without the cult of personality/fandom, there's still a sense that really, you need to have a big march and that'll change things. My suspicion of why this belief persists and thus leads to disappointment is that a lot of lefties have internalized the American myth of Vietnam that Hippies Stopped the War. And because they don't realize that the withdrawal from Vietnam was the rational decision made by a bunch of middle-aged guys with Byrlcreem, they figure that The Hippies did it with their protests. (Boomer self-aggrandizement and right-wing ressentiment together feed into this faulty historical memory.)
But the combination of believing that a Man of Destiny or one-time spectacle can change things means that there's a constant disappointment and befuddlement as to why Team R (which does the boring, unsexy legwork of building local organizations throughout the country) constantly punches above its weight.
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