Hoping that the “fence sitters” will ally with us if we “act right” is as perfect of a self-defeating strategem as offing right-wing talking heads all over the place, methinks.
Public opinion matters. You don’t win political struggle without allies, and that means speaking to and persuading people who are not true believers. You don’t have to like it but you are going to have to contend with it.
Or don’t and lose. The left has been great at that for the past 100 years.
Fence sitters are useless allies… at best. When you need them, you’ll find them doggedly staying exactly where you found them the first time - on the fence.
At worst…
The left has been great at that for the past 100 years.
…you’ll discover what the left seemingly has to rediscover over and over again every damn time - fence sitters very rarely sit on the fence because they are undecided. Or, as Malcolm X put it…
The white liberals are more dangerous than the conservatives; they lure the Negro, and as the Negro runs from the growling wolf, he flees into the open jaws of the “smiling” fox.
I mean fence sitter as in prospective supporters. Not people who are neutral between leftism and fascism (there are few such people).
I’m talking about people who will act as supporters sometimes and not at others. These people possess the vast majority of political power on the left.
Hoping that the “fence sitters” will ally with us if we “act right” is as perfect of a self-defeating strategem as offing right-wing talking heads all over the place, methinks.
Public opinion matters. You don’t win political struggle without allies, and that means speaking to and persuading people who are not true believers. You don’t have to like it but you are going to have to contend with it.
Or don’t and lose. The left has been great at that for the past 100 years.
Fence sitters are useless allies… at best. When you need them, you’ll find them doggedly staying exactly where you found them the first time - on the fence.
At worst…
…you’ll discover what the left seemingly has to rediscover over and over again every damn time - fence sitters very rarely sit on the fence because they are undecided. Or, as Malcolm X put it…
I mean fence sitter as in prospective supporters. Not people who are neutral between leftism and fascism (there are few such people).
I’m talking about people who will act as supporters sometimes and not at others. These people possess the vast majority of political power on the left.