Bob Wing wrote a useful and thought-provoking Organizing Upgrade piece on an inside-outside electoral strategy for the Left. Along with a post by Bill Fletcher (and following his "It's Time for the Left to get Serious" talk to YDS), these pieces articulate an urgent challenge to the Left. In light of not just the upcoming Obama election, but the Galloway win in England and the 3rd place finish of Le Pen versus two strong Left candidates, it is clear that the Left needs to discuss electoral strategies and not just whether it should have strategy (or not) in order to further social justice.

However, while we appreciate much of what they suggest, we feel Wing and Fletcher discuss electoral strategy as if the answer is just a "changing of the guards" which doesn't take into account the role and functions of the state. We found much of Bob's piece persuasive, but feel he gives too little attention to a crucial piece of the puzzle, which he mentions briefly as the fourth point in his proposal where he writes: “We must have a governance strategy, not a strategy just of ‘influence’ or ‘impacting public policy and debate.’”