This episode is a deep dive with Victor Wallis (author of Democracy Denied and Red-Green Revolution) about how the Left can and should relate to elections and to threats to democracy in the United States. Victor is joined in conversation by nationally renowned organizer Medea Benjamin (Code Pink).
What are the opportunities and dangers represented by the 2020 Election? Questions and issues explored include: how should socialists relate to the Republican and Democratic Parties? To third party efforts? What can we learn from history in terms of how the Left can effectively engage the electoral process without getting sucked into compromised politics that undermine our goals and values? What are the threats to electoral democracy in the USA today and why is it important to defend the ballot box and defeat the Right, even while recognizing the compromised nature of the Democratic Biden ticket? What needs to be done to defend democracy in the USA, via the ballot box and beyond?
Victor Wallis is a socialist scholar and long-time editor of the journal Socialism & Democracy. He is a frequent to contributor to Monthly Review, New Political Science, and Capitalism, Nature, Socialism, and is author of three books: Democracy Denied: Five Lectures on American Politics, Red-Green Revolution: The Politics and Technology of Eco-Socialism, and Socialist Practice: Histories and Theories.
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