This is not semantic pedantry nor the sectarian jostling of those preaching “true” socialism. Understanding this is absolutely essential to build a political organization capable of enacting a radical-left political program. It is an error, in my estimation, to believe that social democracy necessarily greases the wheels of socialism, that one comes to the radical left more easily by moving through the center left. It seems just as likely that social democracy acts instead as a foreclosure to the rise of the radical left. Rather than moving through social democracy, the radical left must move around it. It is not a natural progression to move from the welfare state to the workers’ council. It must be articulated and promulgated clearly and openly. History suggests the opposite trajectory will occur in the absence of a countervailing political will. Radical-left movements will veer toward social democracy, find it all too comfortable and eventually eradicate themselves in the process. Without a lengthy detour, one can simply follow the series of asinine splits and mergers that led the once-powerful Communist Party of Italy to eventually bequeath labor-thrashing Matteo Renzi. Or in an American context, one can reach to the Democratic Socialists of America — a left-wing organization currently endorsing Sanders — whose founding father Michael Harrington felt it no political error to baldly state in the midst of the Cold War, “I am anticommunist on principle.” At the level of Sanders’ endgame strategy, this confusion leads to a strategic fumbling. While acknowledging constantly on the campaign trail the fundamentally antidemocratic nature of the Democratic Party, the campaign still seeks refuge in the party platform. Even with the unexpectedly strong selections for the committee, like Cornel West, who has called the sitting president a war criminal, it still bespeaks an odd and misplaced faith. The Democratic Party does not uphold the platform it has now, and it cannot be expected to uphold the “most progressive platform ever” — which Sanders seeks to institute. I believe a stronger move would be to draft a radical-left platform while refusing to contest the official Democratic Party line. This action could be accompanied by a delegate walkout, to state that one has no reason to believe that the Democratic Party is willing or able to carry out the necessary political tasks, while also presenting an affirmative program to the public — a platform in search of a party. Cornel West, in noteworthy fashion, has followed this path by recusing himself from supporting the party, appearing on the platform committee only to raise hell on political untouchables (mainly Palestine) and leaving just as quickly as he came to endorse Jill Stein. It remains to be seen how raucous Philadelphia becomes for the Democratic National Convention, but it appears that the convention won’t be seriously contested by the Sanders campaign. Sanders himself has already thrown many of his delegates into an existential crisis by endorsing Clinton while maintaining that he wants their presence on the floor. This posture — of the independent candidate expressing a strategy of “takeover” of the existing Democratic Party — has to be chalked up as proving the Trots right. It is time for the radical left to open up and confront the conjuncture. Of all the internal disputes about how to “approach” the Sanders campaign, the best answer is to do so honestly — to neither burrow into the movement by obscuring vanguardist pretensions nor to stand aside and berate its shortcomings. One must say that the Sanders campaign’s antiausterity premise is one that should be solidified and fought for but that the campaign must be built on and pushed farther to the left. The difficulty should not be underestimated, but the left cannot avoid it. The fundamental premise of Sanders’ campaign — that his “political revolution” can be accomplished within the confines of capitalism — is incorrect. That will soon be clear. Sanders is going through his endgame. We are going through an opening. Let us show the way to the great red beyond. Nathan Fisher is a socialist organizer living in Los Angeles. He ran as a delegate for Bernie Sanders in California Congressional District 28. Your support matters…

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#2016 election#bernie sanders#black lives matter#capitalism#citizens united#cornel west#democratic party#donald trump#goldman sachs#hillary clinton#islamic state#jeff weaver#jim webb#karl marx#koch industries#libya#lincoln chafee#nafta#neoliberal#politics#revolution#sheldon adelson#socialism#supreme court#tom daschle#usa#wall street#white house