Why not just let them keep their pretense of being different from the Republicans, and form a new entity that has nothing at all to do with the Democratic party?

Is that too frightening for old die-hard Demos?

Why can’t it be done?

Why can’t people rally around Ralph Nader, or Cynthia McKinney, or Mike Gravel?

Is it because the mainstream infotainment media tell you that they’re “not serious” candidates?

Is it because you think that the only one who can win is someone who is from a “major” party?

Is it because you would rather pretend to support something that will change America, and not actually work for that change?

What explains this fond romanticism for “the Left” and its ridiculous, childish ties to the Democrats?

Try to remember, people, that political parties change and eventually they no longer resemble whatever instigated their original formation. At the time of the Civil War, the Republicans were working to end slavery. And now? They seek financial enslavement of everyone! As do the Democrats!

It’s frustrating reading these fond reminiscences of the “left” and the “Democrats” that are seen through a much-too-rosy filter.

See reality as it is !

See that the Democrats will not be changed.

See that the path to change lays with a 3d party, an overhaul of the electoral process, and perhaps even an elimination of the Senate.

Return to the original Articles of Confederation that worked between 1776 and 1787, so that you may see the true self-government impulses that were behind the formation of America.

And try to bear in mind that we slaughtered a whole lot of natives (”Indians”) in the bargain, because the blood hasn’t yet been washed off our collective hands.

Also, I wouldn’t be so quick to rule out Marxism, or to take people like Stalin or Richard Pipes at their word when they claim the USSR is “Marxism in action.” Every minority ruling class uses ideology to justify their rule at the expense of the interests of the majority. Stalin used the language of Marxism as cover for the bureaucrats’ exploitation of the working class and peasantry, just like George Bush uses the language of democracy and freedom as cover for US imperialism in the Middle East and Central Asia. Similarly to a point you make above, Stalin’s use of the language of Marxism was used to discredit actual Marxism, whose fundamental principles Stalin rejected. Stalin rejected internationalism for “socialism in one country”; working class self-emancipation for the expansion Russian imperialism; democracy for totalitarianism. We should not ignore the real Marxist tradition, kept alive initially by Trotsky (who Stalin murdered) and his followers, as we seek to build a Left that can combat the horrible injustice you point to.

In solidarity,
Gary L

US jobless figures: The specter of a new depression
By David Walsh 5 April 2008
“Millions of Americans face the prospect of a sharp decline in living standards and conditions of life. Because of their commitment to the profit system, no section of the US political establishment—neither the Bush administration and the McCain campaign nor the Clinton and Obama camps—is capable of proposing any measures that will materially assist those seeing their jobs, homes nor social benefits disappear or devastated by the present developments.”
…
The decline of the position of American capitalism in the world, its decisive loss of global hegemony, has the most profound implications. For wide layers of the population it means, in the first place, a series of severe shocks. In the end, this process must have revolutionary political consequences.”

Here is link to full article:

http://www.wsws.org/articles/2008/apr2008/jobs-a05.shtml
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And this article from the editor of MONTHLY REVIEW April 2008:

The Financialization of Capital and the Crisis , by John Bellamy Foster

Here is the link to the full article:

http://www.monthlyreview.org/080401foster.php

The hard truth of the matter is that the regime of monopoly-finance capital is designed to benefit a tiny group of oligopolists who dominate both production and finance. A relatively small number of individuals and corporations control huge pools of capital and find no other way to continue to make money on the required scale than through a heavy reliance on finance and speculation. This is a deep-seated contradiction intrinsic to the development of capitalism itself. If the goal is to advance the needs of humanity as a whole, the world will sooner or later have to embrace an alternative system. There is no other way.