What should we do to push the country to the left?

[struggle4progress]

36. There may sometimes be important tactical or strategic reasons to vote on grounds other than

pure principle, most especially when a pure and principled vote threatens to hand power to dangerous opponents

The clearest illustration that I know comes from the late Weimar Republic. The effort to reconstitute the German state, in the aftermath of the Kaiser's abdication during the 1918 Revolution, produced in the early Weimar years a grotesque use of rightwing German military units by the Social Democratic Party (SPD) to suppress ongoing revolutionary activity. This naturally produced, in the ranks of the German Communist Party (KPD), a permanent hatred for the SPD. The Nazi gains in the July 1932 elections led to complete parliamentary deadlock; after the November elections, the SPD and KPD combined had greater combined strength than the Nazis, but were unable to work together. By March 1933, the Nazis had enough control to imprison most of their parliamentary opponents in parties such as the SPD and KPD and hence were able to pass the Enabling Act, providing dictatorial power

Of course, hindsight is perfect, but the inability of the SPD and KPD to make common cause in the early 1930s, on issues about which they agreed, seems to me a great tragedy