Responding to a "Hillary in 2008?" thread, alert reader Dr. Sardonicus posted this comment, which I think contains a lot of wisdom:

[R]ealistically, you can’t lead a revolution from the White House. The President is so hemmed in by the obligations as Leader of the Free World and Chief Steward of the World’s Largest Economy that many of their policy decisions are dictated to them in advance. We could elect Bernie Sanders president, and by the end of the first round of foreign policy and economic briefings, he’d just be Bill Clinton again.

No, these things have to be done one city council, one state legislature, one Congressional seat at a time. The most important thing progressives/socialists have to learn is patience. The most frustrating thing I’ve found in my years of dealing with left activists is the belief most of them seem to have that America is running out of time, everything has to happen now, we must hurry in order to head off the Apocalypse.

My belief is that it will take at least two generations to create a genuine progressive movement in this country that can wield genuine political power and that will last. All the older generation can do is get the ball rolling and have faith in the younger generation to finish the job. And have faith that the American people have the good sense to pull back on the reins of the reactionaries before they lead the country over the cliff. The biggest mistake the Soviets made was trying to speed the timetable of revolutionary change up, and we all know where that led.

If the Apocalypse is truly around the corner, there ain’t a damn thing we can do about it at this late date.

Dr. Sardonics is, IMNSHO, 100% corrente. This is a multigenerational project. We need to construct an entire world of alternatives, in the face of withering fire from the corporations and their apologists. This long duree, in election cycle terms at least, is why we need to think about food, music, art, illness, wellness, the body...

We need a deeper politics that will deny the corporations the resources on which they feed--our bodies.