We’ve lived so long under the spell of hierarchy—from god-kings to feudal lords to party bosses—that only recently have we awakened to see not only that “regular” citizens have the capacity for self-governance, but that without their engagement our huge global crises cannot be addressed. The changes needed for human society simply to survive, let alone thrive, are so profound that the only way we will move toward them is if we ourselves, regular citizens, feel meaningful ownership of solutions through direct engagement. Our problems are too big, interrelated, and pervasive to yield to directives from on high.
—Frances Moore Lappé, excerpt from Time for Progressives to Grow Up

Friday, March 11, 2016

Bernie Sanders and the End of the Democratic Party

Click here to access article by Margaret Kimberley from Black Agenda Report
It is time to stop the quixotic search for better Democrats. It is time for a wholesale rejection of the reliance on electoral politics. A rotten system can’t accomplish anything that leftists want to see realized.
But later she writes:
Most Bernie Sanders supporters will not fall in line if the disliked Hillary Clinton is the Democratic presidential nominee. They probably won’t vote for the eventual Republican choice either but they won’t turn obediently to Clinton. They should choose to start over with a new party.
Oh my god!! This Pete Seeger refrain comes into my mind: "When will they ever learn, when will they ever learn."

I remember just before the presidential election in 2008, the Black Agenda Report endorsed Obama for president. Well, I guess Kimberley's view here shows some progress, but it is woefully short of what is needed. She totally ignores the fact that the capitalist ruling class controls all institutions which includes the elections. The only real alternative is for ordinary people to begin to organize a revolutionary movement to rid ourselves of the capitalist boot that is pressing down and slowly killing all of us.