"The American socialist Eugene Debs -- who ran five times for president as a candidate of the Socialist Party (SP) -- took a completely different attitude toward the relationship between workers, elected officials and democracy. He said in 1905:

Too long have the workers of the world waited for some Moses to lead them out of bondage. He has not come; he never will come. I would not lead you out if I could; for if you could be led out, you could be led back again…..[gdn: this occured beginning in 1973 with the Powell Memo, then ALEC. then Reagan]
....I would have you make up your minds that there is nothing that you cannot do for yourselves. You do not need the capitalist. He could not exist an instant without you. You would just begin to live without him. You do everything and he has everything; and some of you imagine that if it were not for him, you would have no work. As a matter of fact, he does not employ you at all; you employ him to take from you what you produce, and he faithfully sticks to his task. If you can stand it, he can: and if you don't change this relation, I am sure he won't. You make the automobile, he rides in it. If it were not for you, he would walk; and if it were not for him, you would ride."

Source: Truthout.org "What Does a Socialist Movement Look Like?"
By Elizabeth Schulte, Socialist Worker