WARNING: CONTAINS “SOCIALISMS”
via Jezebel. Brendan O’Connor interviews some Leftists about the election results
Mike Sylvester – Democratic State Legislator from Portland, Maine. He is currently the only open, Democratic Socialist of America (DSA) member holding state office.
We just saw an election where a “change candidate” beat an “establishment candidate.” To most of us on the left, the changes that were being proposed by Trump were abhorrent, inhumane or even ridiculous. Most of of our fellow Americans saw it differently or stayed home. Trump’s supporters saw a broken system and figured any change would be better than more of the same.
I ran for state office to support a socialist vision of change. Within days of filing my papers, I attended a training where an “expert consultant” explained that candidates should be as vague as possible so that we couldn’t get “trapped” by our beliefs. My campaign responded to this advice by creating signs that said DEMOCRATIC SOCIALIST and LABOR DEMOCRAT and PUBLIC WATER NOT FOR SALE and MORE LOVE, NO HATE with a cartoon figure of me in my hoodie and jeans, leaning against my name. Here I am, the signs said. Here is what I believe. Big mistake, some said. We won by 82%.
If economics is the dismal science, political science is the deceitful science. It flourishes by spreading a false narrative of ‘the other’ which is just as popular in racist circles as amongst us lefties. Political Science also tells a false narrative of ourselves. We are not better than we are. If we are going to win on our justice issues, we must not fall prey to these comforting but false narratives. We must base build, teach the base how to run tight campaigns, get out of the way and not think we know better. We must say to the working poor of every class, skin color, race, gender and sexual orientation that “your fight is my fight” if we want our fight to be their fight. We have to march down dirt roads and into broken cities. We have to tell our honest truth, warts and all. We have to listen.
yep