MY RECENT and very short trip down short-term memory lane, looking at Eschaton again, I was struck at how the same gals and guys - minus the myriads who fled to save their adulthood - were saying pretty much the same bull shit that they were saying when I regularly wasted way too many hours there in the past. Blaming "the Dems" for losing the election, carrying, roughly, the Green Party, perennial play-lefty line on that, making really stupid claims about it all, the same kind of stuff I remember dealing with a lot back then and when I started writing a blog. I referenced one of the early conclusions I came to that in contrast to those who would never run for office or, if they went through the motions of running, knew they'd never win an election and so would never have the possibility of actually making new law and new policy, a real politician knew they had to win and take the office to do anything other than lose, what the Greens and the play-lefties have specialized in doing since the first play-lefty play-party was organized sometime in the 19th century.
You would think that those who hold college credentials would be smart enough to realize that without having had to be taught that but, clearly, that isn't the case. I think the refusal to learn that obvious truth is directly related to the whiteness, the affluence, the mostly maleness of the play-lefties whose aesthetic sensibilities are what most of their conception of politics is about. Duncan Black is a good example of that but no where near as much as his cash cow, or, these days, cash calf. As I mentioned Duncan used to write a number of actually worth reading posts on infrastructure which were ever more interesting and useful than his political theorizing and tantrums. Not that his regulars ever seemed to much read those as compared to the tantrums.
As a now longtime advocate of getting a more adult left going, I don't see much evidence of that happening. One that knows, first and foremost, that they have to win elections to do anything and that threatening those who have gotten elected and who know their reelection doesn't depend on the generally undependable play-left is needed more than the entire play-left from now on back.
I don't think the play-left, affluent, indirectly affected by the Trumpian fascists winning and, then, not that much, should be part of that because they are gifted at division and election losing. It's their only talent other than spreading discouragement. I wasted years trying to talk facts with them. We're plum out of years to do that.