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Michael Harrington called it the left wing of the possible. Beneath the slogan lay a practical reality. American socialists had no viable alternative to the Democratic Party. The two-party system, ballot access laws, fundraising networks, and the institutional gravity of a party that had absorbed much of the Left all pointed in the same direction. Work within the Democrats or remain on the margins.
Harrington chose the Democrats and built the Democratic Socialists of America around that choice. He believed American socialism would accomplish more by influencing one of the nation’s two major parties than by creating a third marginal party. He spent the rest of his life defending that strategy.
For decades, DSA leaders described their approach as political realignment. Following Sen. Bernie Sanders’s (I-VT) presidential campaigns, many activists embraced what became known as the dirty break: using Democratic ballot lines to build socialist power while envisioning an eventual independent workers’ party. As the organization grew and its elected officials multiplied, however, the promised break receded further into the future.