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PARTISAN REVIEW
popular alliance, this time without the Communists and without or–
ganized capitalism, based primarily upon labqr, the liberal intellec–
tuals, professional and business men of democratic integrity, co-opera–
tors, farmers, and a youth not suborned by the fleshpots of commercial
success. Without such an alliance I can see no prospects for democratic
socialism. And even with such an alliance the odds are against victory.
But they may be turned by intelligence, courage, and a little luck.
The day-by-day struggle for human decency and a better social
order seems to me to be more important than the "ultimate" victory
of a total program. Except in certain historical situations whose date
cannot be forseen or prepared for, it seems to me unwise to jeopardize
the chances for immediate piecemeal gains by staking everything on
one effort for fundamental revolutionary change. To struggle for spe–
cific changes and reforms and at the same time to try to press back
the tide of totalitarianism is difficult enough. It may succeed no better
than hopeful illusions and hysterical fears. Yet, to be resigned to the
contingency of defeat but to fight like hell for the best possible chance
in every alternative is what the good life in action means. To triumph
in a struggle at the cost of one's fundamental values is the height of
vulgarity-and futility. It is no triumph at all. Even of Hitler we can
say that he was degraded by the way he lived, not by the way he died.
The future of democratic socialism is indeed uncertain and dark but
not hopeless so long as political democratic processes are not destroyed.
The responsibility for making it brighter, here and today and every
day, is ours, not history's.
