The House of Representatives passed an updated version of its annual resolution condemning socialism. This year it complained about the Democratic Socialists of American (DSA) in particular. DSA did not take it lying down. A prominent DSA ideologist, Ben Burgis, took to the webpages of Jacobin, DSA’s unofficial magazine, with a fierce protest: DSA is anti- communist!
Burgis begins, “The House just passed a resolution condemning the Democratic Socialists of America and socialism broadly. While it rehearses opposition to Stalinist authoritarianism, the bill’s real preoccupation is with socialists’ advocacy for expanded democracy.”
Burgis is a philosophy teacher and logician. The heart of his rebuttal is this paragraph:
“The resolution’s nominal argument is a mess. The first two ‘whereas’ clauses are claims about the crimes of Stalinist regimes. But democratic socialists have always been critical of such regimes, even then. Condemning democratic socialists with claims about the crimes of Stalinist authoritarianism makes about as much sense as an atheist bringing up the Spanish Inquisition to condemn the Southern Baptists.”
What a performative waste of time and effort all the way around. Distracting stupid shit. Release the files, vote blue (as left as is available to vote for) so that maybe we’ll have investigations and follow up on all the current corruption.
And ffs participate in primaries where you can actually vote your heart and potentially get leftists on the gen ballot
Feels like a lot more of the progressive voters have been at primaries instead of just waiting to bitch about the final choices. Maybe I’m forcing rose colored glasses on my face though.
I think the pendulum is swinging hard to the left after going to the right, there’s been quite a few progressives winning their primaries after Mamdanis big win. Some losses but still more wins than I’ve ever thought I’d see in a long tome
“The resolution’s nominal argument is a mess. The first two ‘whereas’ clauses are claims about the crimes of Stalinist regimes. But democratic socialists have always been critical of such regimes, even then. Condemning democratic socialists with claims about the crimes of Stalinist authoritarianism makes about as much sense as an atheist bringing up the Spanish Inquisition to condemn the Southern Baptists.”
Not really an honest comparison when the Southern Baptists absolutely want to create the American Inquisition but rhetorically effective for people who would never read his words or care what he has to say I guess.