Finally, one might ask why we need a new
Occupy-style movement, and why the left- and right-wing strategic alliances
alone wouldn't do the job. I find the answer in Norman Solomon's useful distinction
between a politics of denunciation and a politics of electioneering. (Or if the
distiction isn't Solomon's, I certainly learned it from him). My
only qualification would be to point out that the politics of denunciation--if it
comes from a vibrant political movement--is also a politics of vision; the
vision provides the yardstick by which the woefully deficient political status
quo is measured and denounced. Now, developing and articulating the needed vision--and
engaging in the related denunciation--is a major job in itself, a job best
handled by a lively, passionate grassroots movement. The movement does the
necessary consciousness-raising and conversation-changing to recruit for the
new political organizations, who try to give concrete electoral, legal, and
policy form to the ideals of the movement. But without the inspiring,
perception-changing movement, the politics of change will simply never get off
the ground, which is why I feel U.S. politics is operating in a vacuum since
Occupy. I strongly suspect Democracy Unchained could fill that void.
I now realize that I was failing to make a necessary
division of labor with my True Blue Democrats movement, trying to do both the
politics of vision/denunciation and the politics of electioneering with one
movement. But until we've had time to discuss and enact reorganization, the TBD
Facebook page is an excellent forum for discussing these issues. Check us out
at www.facebook.com/TrueBlueDemocratsAProgressiveRevolt .
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