I don’t find it at all convincing that socialism will be brought about through electoral politics in the United States.
I find it more likely than a revolution, if only because a revolution is so far from reality right now. If there's a 5% chance that socialism in America can be achieved through electoral means, and a 1% chance that it can be achieved through revolutionary means, the odds are firmly against electoralism and yet it's still far more realistic than a revolution. Whatever you think of the Bernie campaign, it at least approached the scale, resources, and organization of a mass movement.
the New Deal is not socialism. A minimum wage is not socialism. Legalizing weed is not socialism.
These are things that take the boot off the neck of the working class, at least a bit. If you can deliver some initial results to the working class via electoralism, maybe you'll build support for more ambitious gains, and you might eventually build the political power and willingness to strike at the fundamental issue of who owns and controls the means of production.
And even if you can't get all the way across the finish line with electoralism, easing the repression of the working class might make it easier to pursue a unionization or revolutionary approach. That's what I mean when I say that some of the preliminary steps to make a revolution realistic might overlap with the immediate goals of people pursuing other approaches. Look at the electoral efforts to demilitarize (or otherwise limit the power of) the police. That's not socialism, but it might help get us there.
I find it more likely than a revolution, if only because a revolution is so far from reality right now. If there's a 5% chance that socialism in America can be achieved through electoral means, and a 1% chance that it can be achieved through revolutionary means, the odds are firmly against electoralism and yet it's still far more realistic than a revolution. Whatever you think of the Bernie campaign, it at least approached the scale, resources, and organization of a mass movement.
These are things that take the boot off the neck of the working class, at least a bit. If you can deliver some initial results to the working class via electoralism, maybe you'll build support for more ambitious gains, and you might eventually build the political power and willingness to strike at the fundamental issue of who owns and controls the means of production.
And even if you can't get all the way across the finish line with electoralism, easing the repression of the working class might make it easier to pursue a unionization or revolutionary approach. That's what I mean when I say that some of the preliminary steps to make a revolution realistic might overlap with the immediate goals of people pursuing other approaches. Look at the electoral efforts to demilitarize (or otherwise limit the power of) the police. That's not socialism, but it might help get us there.