Thread by @PghGreenLeft

This video is of Elizabeth Warren before she became Senator when she wasn't afraid to call out Dem leaders for representing corporations not people.

How much of this story now applies to Warren herself? How many of today's "progressives" will do the same?

It's quite simple -- if you don't have the strength of will and organizing skills to proudly run as an independent, then how are you going to stand up to corporate pressures while in office?

Progressive activists need to be very careful who they are giving their time/money to.

It's no coincidence that the people afraid to declare independent opposition to the system get elected and then start voting for imperialism, massive war budgets, and more, despite all their progressive talk.

If you cave to "I have to run Democrat", what else do you cave to?

We've got to view independent organizing not just as an "option" or a "tool", but as an imperative -- a moral, ethical, strategic imperative *required* to defeat capitalism & the state, and therefore a test of character for potential candidates.

Don't get me wrong -- folks trapped in the Democratic Party are not necessarily "bad" people or trying to be misleading. Some are trying to do what they think is right.

The problem is what they think is right comes from a very shallow analysis of capitalism and power.

"Progressives" and leftists in general in the US often lack a comprehensive analysis and theory of capitalism, the state, and power in general. Therefore instead of forming a coherent roadmap toward change, it becomes sort of a jumble of knee-jerk reactions to capitalism.

Without a coherent analysis and praxis, it becomes very easily for capitalists and those with power to string along leftists with sticks and carrots. Push "compromise!" and get leftists to go along, when in reality it will never lead to the world leftists envision.