Socialists at the time were actually organizing for electoral success beyond just Debs - the guy who convinced him to become a socialist, Victor Berger, was elected to the House of Representatives and used to do shit like introduce measures to abolish the Senate, and Berger's whole crew ran Milwaukee (we call them sewer socialists today). They were actually trying to do shit, and the fact that they got so far despite the political persecution is why we still talk about it.
If your only goal is to soak votes from the Democrats, I mean, okay I guess. Doesn't seem like there's much of a point to it to me, though. And there's certainly no point investing time and energy into it if your goal is to make actual material improvements in people's lives.
Socialists at the time were actually organizing for electoral success beyond just Debs - the guy who convinced him to become a socialist, Victor Berger, was elected to the House of Representatives and used to do shit like introduce measures to abolish the Senate, and Berger's whole crew ran Milwaukee (we call them sewer socialists today). They were actually trying to do shit, and the fact that they got so far despite the political persecution is why we still talk about it.
If your only goal is to soak votes from the Democrats, I mean, okay I guess. Doesn't seem like there's much of a point to it to me, though. And there's certainly no point investing time and energy into it if your goal is to make actual material improvements in people's lives.