In USA, Progressive Members of Congress Expel You!

I signed a statement rejecting proposals now circulating within DSA to expel Rep. Jamaal Bowman. Here are some additional remarks in that vein.

The first question is the present correlation of progressive forces inside Israel & the territories: what would be their position? That for me would condition everything that follows in this post. Progressive forces on the ground are the logical arbiters of our own stance. No doubt trying to reconcile the views of these disparate forces would be difficult, and that’s something only they can do.

The idea of DSA lecturing Bowman is ludicrous. Pols at Bowman’s level are going to know what they need to know. The real target for education is the public, creating a political climate that allows politicians to do the right thing, whatever that is (see previous point).

The idea of “holding accountable” someone like Bowman is insulting on top of ludicrous. No self-respecting politician would subject himself or herself to any such meeting. It smacks of the old Maoist criticism/self-criticism sessions in which comrades would take to brow-beating errant cadre.

Bowman and the Squad don’t need DSA, an organization that in the grand scheme of U.S. politics is still microscopic. Some people need to get over themselves.

The expel view dovetails with some DSAers’ sectarian rejection of work with potential allies that entails compromise on joint platforms. Purity means isolation, and isolation means political impotence. Given DSA’s size at this point, what it stands for has more impact on its own political prospects than on the wider world. Shrinking from support of the Squad would seal DSA’s fate as another doomed sectarian organization.

If DSA could influence events in Israel and the territories, figuring out a compromise would be a meaningful though difficult problem to solve. At present, DSA’s influence is nil, so posturing on Bowman only serves the purpose of isolating DSA, which is surely the objective of our sectarian exclusionists. It has zero impact inside Israel.

In DSA’s current form, Rep. Bowman is more able to expel DSA from progressive politics in his geographic sphere of influence than the converse.