What’s Left?
** This article was published on Counterpunch May 13, 2016 With the imminent demise of the Bernie Sanders campaign for the Democratic Party nomination, discussion has turned to what should come next. Some, including Seattle Socialist City Councilwoman Kshama Sawant, have agitated for creating a generic "party of the left". But what does that mean? As we shall see, it's a troublingly vague slogan whose beauty, if it exists at all, is solely in the eye of the beholder. But first, we must step back and survey the lay of the land. Those inspired by Sanders campaign and those disillusioned with the two major parties come in various flavors. 1. In the first category, there are those who see the status quo—characterized by unequal distribution of wealth, endless war, rampant racism, unemployment, mass incarceration and diminishing expectations—as fundamentally unjust, while having no coherent analysis whence comes the injustice. These are liberals , progressives or...