The following is chapter six of Lance Selfa’s The Democrats: A Critical History. The footnote references have been removed. One of the enduring truisms of American politics since the 1960s is the notion that Republicans are “strong on national defense” while Democrats are “weak.” In 2004, largely on this […]
Bernie Sanders ended his second presidential bid in April—endorsing Joe Biden and urging his supporters to vote for him. Since then, the political climate in the U.S. has been transformed. The Covid-19 pandemic, the ensuing economic crisis and large scale unemployment, followed suddenly by the mass uprisings triggered by the […]
In what was likely the most predictable event in the Democratic Party primary season, Sen. Bernie Sanders on April 13 endorsed former Vice President Joe Biden as the Democratic nominee to go up against President Trump in November. No one should have been surprised that the Sanders campaign ended this […]
The primary season is barely underway, but the Democratic Party’s “Anybody but Trump” strategy has already given way to “Anybody but Bernie.” Not surprisingly, the Democratic National Committee’s (DNC) long-standing plan for former Vice President Joe Biden to assume the mantle of party nominee backfired badly in the first two […]
AFTER DECADES of asserting his independence from the two capitalist parties in the U.S., one of the best-known socialists in the country registers as a Democrat to run in the party primaries. He campaigns on a program of pro-working class policies, taxing the rich and putting the unemployed to work. […]
Every four years, you can count on a group of prominent left-of-center figures to issue a statement aimed at the broad left urging a vote for the Democratic Party presidential candidate. Whether it’s the positive case of “Progressives for Obama” or the fear-induced call to support the “lying neoliberal warmonger,” […]
Us history is full of examples of how revolutionaries abandoned their project and dissolved into reformist organizations. Max Shachtman’s Workers’ Party is one historical example.
THE MASS outpouring of protest against Donald Trump and his policies has been inspiring, drawing out hundreds of thousands of people and creating a situation in which the possibilities for solidarity–in defending every group Trump attacks–have become more tangible. There is not only anger against Trump–and, of course, a great […]
