Tuesday Thoughts on the Revolution

[Jackpine Radical]

Another thread this morning started me thinking about the "pragmatism" of Obama versus the idealism of people like Kucinich and Ralph Nader. This is obviously a hot topic, and one that sits atop one of the major faultlines that run through the bedrock of DU. I started writing with the notion that I knew where I was going with my thoughts, but I surprised myself with where I ended up. I offer the following in the form of a PBN (Partially Baked Notion):

Essentially, we do indeed need idealists like Kooch & Nader. We probably need more than that, in fact. The modern Progressive left lacks a Marx, an Engels, a starting point. K&N are there with coherent positions on reasonably practical matters. They present what ethicists sometimes term "aspirational goals--" standards one would like to see attained, but has no real hope of attaining. The problem arises when these idealists run for public office. Symbolic runs, i.e. exercises in democracy taken in order to get their ideas some exposure, are presumably wholesome and very useful. But the problem arises when one tries to imagine them actually exercising power. Both tend to at least give the impression of being rigid adherents to fairly narrow perspectives (and in both cases I share their perspectives, at least to a 90% level of overlap), and are therefore generally unacceptable to the public at large, who seem to want to vote for a drinking buddy and not someone who will treat them to a cascade of moral lecturing. But Kooch and Nader as personalities who are totally alien to the pragmatic (and money-dominated) apparati of both political parties, and will never get the sort of media attention or party support needed for a nomination. This leaves them the option of a third-party run, and if they do this, they will inevitably pull 3-5% of the vote away from the next most-liberal major-party candidate, and they will be blamed for the defeat of that candidate.

But all of this is about more-or-less normal times. I think we're now in a pseudo-recovery, a social dead-cat bounce, and are headed for a depression that will not go away until we make the changes necessary to turn this country into a viable entity with a green, sustainable economy. The only real question is how much misery we will put up with before we realize how fucked we are, how much misery we will put up with before we realize that only the ideals of a Kooch or a Nader will get us off our path to ultimate destruction. When and if we get to that point, all hell is going to break loose, and no amount of money will buy the Corporate State an "acceptable" (i.e. tame) CEO. Then we will see the Stahlfaust. Whether we can win against the Steel Fist--whether we will even fight against it, or meekly accept our own trip to nowhere in the cattle cars, is the question that will determine the course of this new century. And will determine whether we will ever see a leader arise on the shoulders of Kooch and Nader.

[agent46]

1. Starting point.

I like this kind of post. Thanks.

You made an interesting statement. "The modern Progressive left lacks a Marx, an Engels, a starting point."

History is about looking for clues to how things come about. In this case the question could be: Historically, what forces tend to be in play when movements are galvanized by the rise of a vanguard of leaders (or voices) like a Marx, or Engles, or any number of others?

Historically what forces, do you think, tend to be in play prompting the rise of practical leaders with an idealist foundation - people who manage to bring about a (revolutionary) shifting from the voices of "aspirationals goals" to the voices of practical imperative?

It could be a way of testing how far we have to go, or at least an interesting thing to ponder.

:thumbsup:

[Jackpine Radical]

2. There was a strong socialist movement in "the Germanies" in the early 1800's.

A lot of them were driven out before 1850. Historically, many of them came to Milwaukee--the "Achtundvierzigers," the "48'ers," where they founded many socialist institutions, some of which lasted until the 1960's.

Here is Wikipedia on Milwaukee's last Socialist mayor:

Frank P. Zeidler (September 20, 1912 – July 7, 2006) was an American politician and Socialist Party of America mayor of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, serving three terms from 1948 to 1960. He was the most recent Socialist mayor of any major American city.<1>
During Frank Zeidler's administration, Milwaukee grew industrially and never had to borrow money to repay loans. During this period, Milwaukee nearly doubled its size with a very aggressive campaign of municipal annexations: large parts of the Town of Lake and most of the Town of Granville were annexed to the city. The park system was upgraded. Zeidler spearheaded planning and construction of the beginning of Milwaukee's freeway system, and turned it over to Milwaukee County in 1954. To his passing he maintained that the basic Milwaukee freeway system should have been built and that the city's competitiveness had been compromised by the failure to complete the basic system.
Zeidler wrote several books, including not only treatises on municipal government, labor law, socialism, and Milwaukee history, but poetry, renditions of four of Shakespeare's plays into present-day English, and children's stories. On June 13, 1958 Zeidler was the first person to receive an honorary doctorate from the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee.<2> The Milwaukee Public Library's historic collections are housed in the Frank P. Zeidler Humanities Room, named in his honor.
Zeidler was instrumental in re-forming the Socialist Party USA in 1973, and served as its National Chair for many years. He was the party's presidential nominee in 1976, getting on ten state ballots. He and his running mate, J. Quinn Brisben, received 6,038 votes.
Zeidler credited his activism as a socialist to his deep Lutheran faith; he adopted his socialist beliefs during the Great Depression while reading socialist literature at the library.<3> He became a leader of the Young People's Socialist League as a teenager, and was active and involved in politics as a Socialist until his death at age 93.

[agent46]

3. Interesting

So these exiled socialists gave rise to Zeidler's administration - a practical leadership that accomplished things in the direction of their ideals. I'm curious about the forces and conditions that led to their exile in the first place.

[Jackpine Radical]

4. Check out the history of the Turnvereine (German gymnastic & political societies):

Milwaukee Turners, Inc.

The Milwaukee Turners have their roots, along with other American Turners societies across the country, in the German Turn Verein associations of the early 19th century. These associations were founded by Frederick Ludwig Jahn in 1811 to prepare youth, both mentally and physically, for resistance to Napoleonic domination, and later for other anti-democratic forms of government.

The Turn Verein associations became powerful social and political organizations in Germany that used gymnastic training as a preliminary and inconspicuous preparation for military drills. In 1848 they helped spark a liberal revolution to establish a unified, democratic republic in Germany. The revolution was defeated and over 600,000 Germans were exiled as a result.

The First Turner societies in the United States were organized in 1848 by German immigrants and exiles carrying the torch of liberty and democratic reform. These "48'ers", as they were called, created vigorous athletic, cultural, and social societies throughout the country in the tradition of the German Turn Verein societies. The Turner motto, "Sound Mind in a Sound Body," expresses their holistic vision for realizing human potential through the harmonious integration of intellectual and physical development.

The Milwaukee Turners received their charter from the Wisconsin State Legislature in 1855. Milwaukee was once know as "German Athens of America" for its vital German artistic, political and civic culture, and the Turners were a central part of this community. The Turners, both nationally and locally, established a reputation for fighting for the principles declared in their national charter: "Liberty, against all oppression; Tolerance, against all fanaticism; Reason, against all superstition; Justice, against all exploitation!", Turners members volunteered in large numbers for the Union Army and served as President Lincoln's personal bodyguards as he toured the nation. Turners were influential in developing the "ethnic vote" as a force for liberal Republican politics. They were also early advocates for women's suffrage and equal rights, and were one of the first German-American organizations to publicly denounce the atrocities of National Socialism and Hitler's regime in Germany.

Central to the Milwaukee Turners was a deep concern for social reform and a relentless pursuit of honest and open democratic government. In 1903 Turner Hall hosted a 3,000-plus person meeting that spurred the 'clean government' movement to eliminate graft, corruption and cronyism in local government that then swept the nation in the early twentieth century. By the turn of the century, many of the Milwaukee membership were no longer liberal Republicans, but had become Social Democrats. After the Haymarket Square Riot in Chicago and the Bay View Rolling Mill massacre in Milwaukee—just days apart in 1886—the right of workers to organize for basic human rights without fear of violence or retribution became a central issue across the nation and especially in Milwaukee. Turner members and leaders worked at the forefront of these issues.

Victor Berger, a long-time Turner in Milwaukee, pioneered with Eugene V. Debs the American Socialist Party dedicated to promoting the rights of workers and promoting clean, efficient, and democratic forms of government. Berger was the first Socialist elected to the U.S. Senate. Milwaukee is the only major city in the country to have three socialist mayors: Emil Seidel (1910-1912), Daniel Hoan (1916-1940), and Frank Zeidler (1948-1960); all three proud Turner members. All together, six Milwaukee mayors have been Turner members.