Why We Need an Independent Politics, and How to Build it: Replies
Kazin, Michael
I thought it was only the corporate breed who cut to "the bottom line." At any rate, Joel Rogers protests too much. The purpose of my comments on the New Party was not to bury what is...
...It's been a generation since any serious effort was made to redefine the Democrats from the left...
...Make America Truly Democratic— Take Back Your Party" is surely as attractive a message as "Leave the sinking ship to Bill Clinton and his lackeys...
...The major parties have yielded to mass demands, though not always and never as much as ideological partisans would like...
...I too vibrate to the old-time religion of social democracy...
...many are not sure that, acting above society, it either could or should...
...I like the image Rogers draws of a big coalition backing local candidates who endorse its major issues...
...But I don't see how joining the New Party will lighten their burden...
...nd that's where the Democrats could come back in...
...and (2) Are the Democrats worth the (left's) time and effort...
...One reason why our side has not been doing well is that we seldom question the equation of a stronger national state with what Rogers calls "the very idea of a democratic society...
...A bit less than thirty years ago, anti-warriors generated enough pressure to force a liberal president to step down...
...The purpose of my comments on the New Party was not to bury what is clearly the wisest of the embryonic alternatives...
...There's a lesson in that history...
...So may the New Party mature and prosper...
...And, for the record, I read some of the party's literature, heard its executive director speak at length and respond to many questions (in that hotbed of populist rebellion, Wellfleet, Mass...
...But "Do no harm" is only a strategy, not a way to inspire skeptics or mobilize the confused and apathetic...
...And, right now, "old" party candidates for local and state offices and even the House of Representatives can run and often win on a platform identical to one Rogers and I would favor...
...I applaud the concept of fusion and cheer the New Party's attempts to break the legal barriers against it (fighting for proportional representation would be a much bigger victory—and a lot harder to win...
...Ralph Reed likes it too, so much that he and thousands of his fellow organizers have been turning the picture into reality within 94 • DISSENT the Republican party since the late 1980s...
...At the very least, it can force Democrats leftward, if only for their self-interest...
...But it's not good enough for most voters...
...Unfortunately, he skips too blithely past matters of program and vision in his rush to get to the means of building an "independent progressive political machine...
...If the New Party plans to grow strong on rhetoric about "a more responsive and effective government," I fear for its survival...
...As Rogers surely knows, the necessary court challenges and media explaining gobble up time and money...
...Six decades ago, the CIO and its allies were engaged in an analogous task when they transformed local Democratic parties in industrial towns from California to Pennsylvania...
...I only sought to identify weaknesses that its organizers should recognize and may be able to fix...
...and interviewed several sympathetic reporters who've covered the organization...
...The News (yes, they do need to change the name) will only become significant as motivators and perhaps leaders of a growing movement, not as architects of a clever maneuver for the already persuaded...
...When established politicians shun such impassioned but rational efforts, then people may be ready to join a third party...
...One doesn't have to be a theorist of "civil society" to recognize the need and growing desire for more vital, participatory institutions at the workplace, in neighborhoods, in schools, and in houses of worship...
...Rogers does, however, focus on the two main questions: (1) How to build a sizable constituency for the New Party...
...But no "machine" can get very far without a healthy movement to drive it...
...Obviously, it won't be easy to capture the hearts and minds of today's divided and dispirited Dems...
...Environmentalists, feminists, unionists, and stalwart champions of interracial community are often preoccupied with playing defense— and understandably so...
...It isn't just that Americans no longer expect the state to solve their growing problems...
...The new Campaign for America's Future—organized by Robert Borosage, Roger Wilkins, and others—seems dedicated to that task...
...I remain convinced that the best, and perhaps only, way to attract sizable numbers of Americans outside the ranks of the usual "progressive" suspects is to involve them in specific, massive efforts to change the nation—its wage structure, its health care system, its treatment of children and the aged...
Vol. 43 • April 1996 • No. 2
