That's not a bad idea, but we can't really afford to spend 10 years building a bunch of candidates' resumes. We need people on the left to shoot for those bigger offices today.
Electoralism is seeking political power directly through elections, and is dumb. Entryism is seeking political station with a secondary goal - either subverting an established (a lot of people accuse the Corbynites of being trotskyist entryists doing this to Labour) or as an agitation tool - basically all the useful stuff.
By those definitions, entryism is better, sure, but electoralism isn't bad. Look at the Sanders campaign. Running, even without winning, did a lot for the left, making that campaign useful in terms of entryism. But had he won, of course that would be good, too, so it doesn't really make sense to say electoralism is useless.
Also, there's the argument that you can't do serious entryism into electoral politics without a bunch of people who are genuinely seeking power through that election (i.e., electoralism). If you just throw your hat in the ring and don't try to run a serious campaign you get smoked, which is a bad look and can discourage people as easily as it can radicalize them.
That's not a bad idea, but we can't really afford to spend 10 years building a bunch of candidates' resumes. We need people on the left to shoot for those bigger offices today.
Really just shows the futility of electoralism.
It doesn't show that electoralism is futile; it shows that electoraism has limits and is not a one-size-fits-all strategy.
Electoralism != Entryism
What do you mean?
Electoralism is seeking political power directly through elections, and is dumb. Entryism is seeking political station with a secondary goal - either subverting an established (a lot of people accuse the Corbynites of being trotskyist entryists doing this to Labour) or as an agitation tool - basically all the useful stuff.
By those definitions, entryism is better, sure, but electoralism isn't bad. Look at the Sanders campaign. Running, even without winning, did a lot for the left, making that campaign useful in terms of entryism. But had he won, of course that would be good, too, so it doesn't really make sense to say electoralism is useless.
Also, there's the argument that you can't do serious entryism into electoral politics without a bunch of people who are genuinely seeking power through that election (i.e., electoralism). If you just throw your hat in the ring and don't try to run a serious campaign you get smoked, which is a bad look and can discourage people as easily as it can radicalize them.