Tag: Bernie Sanders

How Bernie Sanders Became a Fighter for Palestine

On the importance of mythology to presidential campaigns

With the Democratic primary in full swing, the outlines of public debate are pretty much entrenched.  Common wisdom on the left says that all of the candidates are bad on Palestine except for Bernie Sanders.  Despite some problems, pundits declare, Sanders is still the best.  Is the statement true, though, or is it a convenient truism? 

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Andom Ghebreghiorgis and the Limits of Left Electoralism

What must a radical candidate do to get some love?

For various reasons, I avoid political campaigns.  I just can’t get excited about them, in part because electoralism has so thoroughly colonized the US left.  In a healthy intellectual culture, its predominance would be automatic cause for skepticism.  Unfortunately, these days sickness feels compulsory.  Rejecting electoralism invites disdain and derision. 

Amid the bickering on the US left about the utility of voting, a compromise usually emerges:  voting is merely a form of damage control that one performs every few years before returning to the serious stuff.  But the rhetoric of voting supersedes the physical act. In turn, elections have become a nonstop preoccupation.  The off-season no longer exists. 

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