Why We Need an Independent Politics and How to Build It

Why We Need an Independent Politics and How to Build It

The bottom line of Michael Kazin’s potpourri of political hunches, reportage, and prescription (“Alternative Politics,” Winter 1996) is that progressives should support Democrats in 1996—hardly an item of controversy among this or other readers of Dissent.

Kazin’s broader argument is that supporting Democrats is the only thing that electorally minded progressives should do, now and forever. On his view, there is no progressive “alternative”...