The Value of Mike Harrington’s Strategy
Mike Harrington advocated for the left wing of the possible and to follow the model of modest success that we saw in Europe with social democratic parties. Those who look to Mike Harrington for inspiration clearly understand the reality of the unique American experience. We are not going to have a “revolution” as revolutionary socialists want since the conditions and trials and tribulations of the American experience has forced us to forge our own path to democratic socialism. Not all countries and histories and environments are the same; it is absurd to advocate for a model of socialism based on the 19th century observations of Marx and Engels. It’s even more absurd to think that Leninist, Trotskyist, and Maoist methods have any currency with the American people. Not because of the historical legacy of red-baiting, but for the historical legacy of their abysmal and tragic failures. Failures that include a complete disregard for democracy and human rights.
Those who advocate for the Harrington model believe in the ultimate goodness of the American people and of the American experience. Sure, we live in the country that has seemed to perfect capitalist exploitation, but we have the structures and the history in this country for truly revolutionary change that respects human rights and democracy — despite our history of doing the opposite in some cases. The American journey through fits and starts has resulted in positive change. The advances made in regard to civil rights since the end of World War II, for example, clearly show a path forward — though not nearly fast enough and with some painful steps backward. Only the most self-serving and misanthropic leftist would deny progress has been made and some even deny progress has been made in order to aggrandize their own misguided vision of socialism for this country.
Socialism, the democratic type, does require a willingness to work with and even embrace the current structures we see in our political economy. That does mean realignment and engaging voters via the traditional means of campaigns and electoral politics in addition to organizing workers and citizens. The American people will not trust us to govern and bring about democratic socialism unless we engage them in the structures they know and even trust despite the dislike many of us and them have for the current political system. It remains the only political system we have and one that has survived many trials and tribulations. I give a lot of credit to capitalism and especially American capitalism for its ability to adapt and change in response to economic crisis. And despite those horrible economic crises and suffering the American people have tended to trust our current constitutional system and republic. We need to work within those structures to bring about socialism albeit not as quickly as most of us would like, but in a way that will be accepted as legitimate by the American people. Legitimacy in the form of the consent by those governed must be earned and democratic socialists need to begin to earn the trust and consent of the American people by being responsible public servants while transparently bringing about programs and reforms consistent with socialism and public stewardship over the means of production. We must run away from the socialist politics of resentment and embrace the socialist politics of fulfillment.
