[Marxism] What Norman Thomas told Upton Sinclair

[Louis Proyect]

(From Greg Mitchell's "Campaign of the Century")

Words are symbols. You alone, or you with the help of a certain number 
of California voters, cannot make the word Democratic a symbol for 
Socialism. That word with its capital D is a symbol for the party which 
bitterly discriminates not only against Negroes but white workers in the 
South, for the party of Tammany Hall in New York, and Hague in New 
Jersey. There are not words enough in the dictionary for you to explain 
to the great masses of common folk who have looked to your books for 
leadership the different sense in which you are Democrat. Still less 
will you be able to explain your defection to the multitudes in Europe 
who have hailed you as prophet and spokesman of their hopes.