The cynical defeatism so prevalent in these threads among those left elements posing "no hope for change", is just more of the same old elitist sectarian weaseling for hegemony that has so consistently condemned the US left to marginalization and rejection by the masses.
This is truly ironic, given the fact that public opinion has trended substantially to the left over the last 40 years, such that the right is no longer politically correct in this country.
Much of the left are unable, or unwilling, to recognize the fact that we are winning the revolution, and that all that remains is to resolutely suppress the counter-revolution, democratically, electorally.
Locked into an absolutist idealist oppositionalist perspective that anything short of the total destruction of capitalism, in one fell swoop, is defeat, the more dogmatic, doctrinaire, rhetorical elements of the left refuse to accept any theoretical prospect of gradual, incremental social evolution.
Which is strange, considering that theory, of social evolution, is the entire basis of socialism, toward the eventual realization of communism.
Bourgeois liberal reform is seen as a mere ploy for the preservation of capitalism, and thus an insidious threat to the strategic objective. That's what their 100-year old revolutionary catechisms tell them.
There is no recognition of the fact that bourgeois liberal reform, rather than "putting the masses to sleep", historically, actually tends to inspire further demands for the real thing, actual real democracy.
There is no recognition that the lefts' own refusal to engage in cohesive electoral struggle has historically resulted only in the rise of fascism, and that this has never been "good for the revolution", but has only resulted in infinitely more severe repression, and infinitely more intense suffering and death among the masses.
You see, that's the root problem, is that so many elements on the left are so steeped in elitist contempt for the masses that they actually hate and fear the very concept of more actual real democracy, right now.
Someday maybe...but not now, not with such a contemptibly stupid, ignorant, degenerate, venal, brainwashed, culturally manipulated population...the same age-old rationalization for elitism of any stripe, anywhere...contempt for the masses.
Meanwhile, the masses "deserve what they get", for "supporting" capitalism.
Fascinating, how even as such "leftists" decry the whole monopoly capitalist commercial mass media propaganda meme, they also totally buy into the absolutely false premise of that meme, that the American peoples are a center/right nation, who like it like that, and thus cannot really be trusted with democracy.
The masses are "part of the problem", or worse yet, the real enemy.
Nevermind that this is not 1917 Russia, or 1947 China, but the USA, going into the 21st Century. Nevermind that we now have the internet. Nevermind that public opinion and political consciousness are now at the highest levels ever before in history.
Nevermind that unprecedented numbers of youth, and virtually all people of color have rejected the lefts' call for electoral boycott and vote splitting, and instead "voted with their feet", marching to the polls to elect Obama, and a Progressive Caucus majority within a Democratic Majority to Congress on his coat tails.
Nevermind that this has occurred despite 40 years of all-out 24/7 commercial mass media propaganda blitz, geared up to an hysterical frenzy to demonize Obama as a "socialist".
Accepting this leadership of the masses would be "tailing", opportunism, a sell-out.
Nevermind that huge majorities of the population agree with us on all the most important issues, including comprehensive health care reform, strict re-regulation of the financial markets and corporate practices, ending the wars, etc, not to mention eliminating racism, sexism and eco-rape.
Nevermind that the minority right is so totally, absolutely freaked out by no longer being politically correct in this country, and that this long developing and accelerating trend has reached a critical mass, as indicated by the tipping point of the last election...and that the right is so absolutely freaked out over it all that they are now screaming for political assassination, mass murder, and civil war, to overthrow the popular democratic mandate.
Nevermind that the only thing holding us back from meaningful forward motion is the remnant treasonous anti-democratic Blue Dog/Republican plurality in Congress, which can, and must be out-numbered with more Progressives in Congress, to break through the log jam of "debate" and sabotage, to surge forward.
Nevermind that the only reason that logjam even exists, and has prevailed these many years, has been low voter turnout, due largely to the cynical defeatism promulgated by so many left elements, who have been thoroughly manipulated by COINTELPRO-style "radical" infiltration to call for electoral boycott and splitting.
No, it's got to be instant gratification, all or nothing.
If we succumb to that "left" perspective, we'll get...nothing... or worse, in 2010 and 2012.
Snatching defeat from the jaws of victory.
The most fundamental revolutionary concept is democracy.
Call Off the Electoral Boycott!
Seize the Time!
Seize the Power!
All Out for 2010 and 2012!
Death to Capitalism, as we now know it, and it's moribund form, Fascism!
All Power to the People!
Bring the Better Democrats!
FDR era cartoon