The Long, Slow Surrender of American Liberals

[KoKo]

The Long, Slow Surrender of American Liberals

The cover piece for Harper’s March issue is titled “Nothing Left: The Long, Slow Surrender of American Liberals“. Here is how Ellen Rosenbush introduces the issue:

How will future generations view the presidency of Barack Obama? In this issue of Harper’s Magazine, we present our latest commentary on the president and his legacy with a cover story by University of Pennsylvania political science professor Adolph Reed Jr. His essay is a compelling assessment of the failure of the American left. He begins with the left’s abandonment of Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal principles and achievements, and goes on to criticize both Bill Clinton and Obama for having moved toward the center. Yet Reed’s harshest salvos are directed at the left itself, which he views as effectively dead: it stands for nothing, and is now defined only by its not being the right.

C’mon, American liberals, don’t give up like Alec Baldwin. It’s not all hopeless. I saw random strangers helping each other in the mess of snow, all day. They were getting things done, practical things, working together for the common good.

It’s still possible.

http://4and20blackbirds.wordpress.com/2014/02/26/the-long-slow-surrender-of-american-liberals/

[LiberalElite]

1. I didn't surrender -

it was the "leaders" who gave up.

[polichick]

3. They didn't give up - they sold us out.

[villager]

27. Exactly

n/t

[Octafish]

2. Media played a role.

Here's how much of the nation's press were magically transformed from watchdogs into lapdogsfor the Right:

The Powell Memo (also known as the Powell Manifesto)

The Powell Memo was first published August 23, 1971

Introduction

In 1971, Lewis Powell, then a corporate lawyer and member of the boards of 11 corporations, wrote a memo to his friend Eugene Sydnor, Jr., the Director of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. The memorandum was dated August 23, 1971, two months prior to Powell’s nomination by President Nixon to the U.S. Supreme Court.

The Powell Memo did not become available to the public until long after his confirmation to the Court. It was leaked to Jack Anderson, a liberal syndicated columnist, who stirred interest in the document when he cited it as reason to doubt Powell’s legal objectivity. [font color="red"]Anderson cautioned that Powell “might use his position on the Supreme Court to put his ideas into practice…in behalf of business interests.”[/font color]

Though Powell’s memo was not the sole influence, the Chamber and corporate activists took his advice to heart and began building a powerful array of institutions designed to shift public attitudes and beliefs over the course of years and decades. The memo influenced or inspired the creation of the Heritage Foundation, the Manhattan Institute, the Cato Institute, Citizens for a Sound Economy, Accuracy in Academe, and other powerful organizations. Their long-term focus began paying off handsomely in the 1980s, in coordination with the Reagan Administration’s “hands-off business” philosophy.

Most notable about these institutions was their focus on education, shifting values, and movement-building — a focus we share, though often with sharply contrasting goals.* (See our endnote for more on this.)

So did Powell’s political views influence his judicial decisions? The evidence is mixed. [font color="red"]Powell did embrace expansion of corporate privilege and wrote the majority opinion in First National Bank of Boston v. Bellotti, a 1978 decision that effectively invented a First Amendment “right” for corporations to influence ballot questions.[/font color] On social issues, he was a moderate, whose votes often surprised his backers.

CONTINUED...

http://reclaimdemocracy.org/powell_memo_lewis/

This story continues through today, where we have Chief Justice John Roberts shepherding corporate friendly law through the court, let alone appointing nothing but BFEE-friendly pukes to the FISA Court, and the press working mightily to move on to the next shiny object. Of course, Congress and the Administration do their bit to advance the interests of Corporate America, Wall Street, and War Inc, unchecked by public awareness. It didn't help that so many Liberals were shot dead in the 1960s and those who survived were set upon by traitors of Nixon's ilk crawling from under the rock of immunity labeled "national security" to spy on and smear Frank Church.

[librechik]

23. yeah, sigh

they sold out after it was shown to them that any other pathway would be punished with the wrath of hell. Or failure to get re-elected, whichever. The smart ones saw what happened to Gore and quietly changed plans.

[villager]

28. They also saw what happened to the Kennedys, and King

Part of the failure of "our side" is the refusal to publicly acknowledge just how far their side has gone in skewing, and screwing, America.

[librechik]

29. yes indeed. The coup happened a long time ago.

so sad--so little acknowledged

[maxrandb]

4. Nobody has surrendered

and this article is stupid!

Bulls%&t we "abandoned the New Deal of FDR"! What a bunch of horse-hooey.

Medicare, Welfare, Civil Rights, 40-Hour Work Week, Overtime Pay, Medicaid, Voting Rights, LGBT Rights, Women's Suffrage, Anti-discrimination Laws, VA Medical Care, Workplace Safety, Environmental Protection, Clean Air Act, SSI, etc., etc., etc., ...these are all things that we can thank Liberals and Liberal Ideals for.

Just because 25% of the country lost their "frickin" minds in 2010 and were able to gain power, does not even come close to meaning that "Liberals have surrendered".

This is an article written by a spoiled ignoramus who is pissed because he didn't get a "frickin" pony when President Obama was elected.

This is the kind of "Liberal" who will sing the praises of FDR, without acknowledging that FDR was NOT the "fire-breathing-liberal" that people think he was. He was perhaps our greatest President. He accomplished a great deal to advance progressive programs, but he was by no means a "Liberal"...if you use this writer's definition of Liberal.

Hell, I'd be willing to bet that not even Senator Bernie Sanders would meet this writer's "Liberal" litmus test.

This pisses me off sooooo much. Despite the fact that just about every great program this country has is the result of Liberal ideals, this writer has the gall to claim Liberals have surrendered.

And we wonder why we can't get people to the polls.

"Eff" this crap. Almost everything that is good and just and honorable in this country is because Liberals have been fighting a long, hard slog against the regressive asshats on the right. and liberals have been winning!

If that's fucking surrender, I'd like to know what victory is.

[KoKo]

6. Absolutely NOT! This Post is the REASON we better Get our Butts Out to Vote..

for the last Shambles of Dem Campainers we need to TARGET once we Get them Elected.

We will have to fight back the Koch Brothers/ALEC/Chamber of Commerce and the Think Tanks like "AIE, APAIC, CFR, Atlantic Institute and their smaller and less well known surrogates AND...Wall St. Hedge Fund Coalitions,Political PAC Coalitions of "Third Way, No Labels," and others with "Nice Sounding Names" who work against Democrats while "chumming up to them for donations" and appearing on C-Span and MSM as "Moderates" when they are Anything But...Moderates. They hide in "Sheep's Clothing" while undermining any movement on the Left with rhetoric making them sound like "Liberals."

I'd include "CAP" and any "NGO's and other Organizations who say they are Promoting Democracy while they organize Uprising in Countries where the only Goal is to get U.S. Military and the MIC involved in insurrections under "Guise of Democracy" then we overthrow their Governance and War and Death, Destruction and Dislocation of Millions promptly follows.

We need something BETTER THAN THIS! We will get out there and Vote...because we Dems always vote..for More and Better Democrats.

BUT THIS TIME...they need to be held ACCOUNTABLE. We've learned our LESSONS.

We need REAL CHANGE...and By Gosh...we better get it because our VOTE COUNTS. (if it's TRULY COUNTED)...and that's still up for debate with corrupt voting machines still out there and Repugs and Dems don't want to deal with that issue, anymore.

[Doctor_J]

8. every item in your list is on deaths doorstep

And next month and in 2016 we'll all vote for dinos and corporatists who will ignore us as soon as the election is over. Just like 08 and 12. Sounds like surrender to me

[MannyGoldstein]

5. "Nuts!"

I wish we had generals like Anthony McAuliffe.

[KoKo]

7. Good read...I think those Generals are Out There, though

They pulled Obama back from deposing Assad and instead chose to work with Putin to get Assad to get aid to get rid of the WMD (that we helped give him in our long USA Supprt) and in return Assad thought there would be relief in his situation to give him some help.

But, with the Neocon (Deposing of Leaders Dictators Installed by the West of 7 Countries whom we worked with and supported in Milatary Aid for Decades still in mind)...Assad was Still .."On the List" and so we could entice him to give up his WMD...and then Turn On Him when the time was in our favor to do so with public opinion at our back.

We move forward......................................INTO THE NIGHTMARE!

[L0oniX]

15. Fools rush to war ...again. The thought of peace is abhorrent to them.

[jeff47]

9. This is yet another in a long line of people

arguing that someone else is supposed to have fought the battle.

Why'd the "Reagan Revolution" happen? Numbers. Young Baby Boomers and older Gen Xers lean right. There's roughly a 10% Republican advantage. That got Republicans in power.

The problem was the response. Older Boomers and young Gen Xers lean left by just about the same amount. A coalition could have been brought together to counter it. It wasn't. Because we didn't make it happen. Instead, we let "third way" people tell us we had to be more centrist. And instead of trying to stop them, we stopped voting - young GenX turnout is quite bad, because we were unable to form a coalition within the party to get our issues heard (Not the fault of any one generation. We just didn't bring it together.)

And the country drifted right as "third way" types kept winning more primaries and gaining more positions of power within the party. That let them fill the pool of office holders with third way supporters. And you reach higher office by getting elected to lower office - That pool is where the candidates come from. That keeps third way in power.

This is not something that will magically be fixed by electing a totally super-awesome president who totally gets what I want. This will also not be fixed quickly - the Right has been busting their ass to get us to this point since 1968. It won't take that long since we're not having to work up such a steep hill, but it's not going to happen in one or two presidential terms.

We have to show up at every election. Especially primary elections, because that's where we get to steer the party. We have to get heavily involved in our local party. We have to get involved in our local elections. We have to run for office. We have to stop waiting for a savior to magically appear at the top of the ticket. We have to shove everyone out of our way and force the party, kicking and screaming, back to where it should be.

It's going to be a slog. But we will get there. Why? Numbers. The same thing that brought the Reagan Revolution will eventually create another political shift. But only if we start pushing like hell instead of demanding someone else fix it for us.

[sendero]

10. This is not a problem that will be fixed..

... by electing anybody. If you are paying ANY attention you will realize that they are ALL BOUGHT, including Obama, and your vote means nothing on economic issues, only on social issues. Yea we get to have abortions and gay marriage, but not jobs that pay a living wage.

You wonder why people don't bother with voting, they are not lazy they are just smarter than you, they figured out that IT DOES NOT MATTER. And nobody made that more clear than Obama, keeping the gangsters that sunk our economy in his cabinet.

[jeff47]

12. And you are the problem.

Thanks for responding. You are a picture perfect example of the problem.

This is not a problem that will be fixed..by electing anybody.

"Don't bother voting. A savior didn't appear and fix it for us, so there's no reason to ever try."

You are exactly why we are in this situation. You are insisting that someone else get on the ballot, someone else get elected, and someone else deliver change to you. Gift wrapped and with a nice bow.

Quite simply, get the fuck out of the way. We will drag your lazy ass along as we fix it by not waiting for a savior at the top of the ballot.

[sendero]

16. Keep voting...

... I will. I'm just not thick enough to believe that the change this country needs is coming from the ballot box.

It's not happening.

And BTW, it's not just Obama that leads me to this conclusion, our NAFTA, China Trade, End Welfare As We Know It, Repeal Glass Stegall, sign the Commodity Futures Modernization Act among other things Bill Clinton was just as bad.

[jeff47]

20. I'm not going to only keep voting. That is why you see failure.

Because voting is all you're doing.

And BTW, it's not just Obama that leads me to this conclusion, our NAFTA, China Trade, End Welfare As We Know It, Repeal Glass Stegall, sign the Commodity Futures Modernization Act among other things Bill Clinton was just as bad.

I talk about events back to 1968 and you think I'm only talking about Obama?



Reading. Try it some time.

[Chathamization]

21. Good post. A lot of people seem to forget that the Democrats we get are the ones we elect. If we

don’t like them, we should be voting for others. Voting a candidate into office (or worse, saying you don’t care enough to vote in the primaries and letting others decide) is pretty crazy. We often have good progressives here who try to run and make a difference; the problem is often that we don’t have people who care enough about the primaries to support them (or support them before the primaries, which is often just as important and which people neglect even more).

[malokvale77]

11. I have not and never will surrender

I must admit that I usually feel alone in the crowd.

I'm glad we got our first black president, but I would have preferred that it had been Shirley Chisholm.

I remember my parents would cringe ever time they heard the term "Reagan Democrats". They called them self serving bastards and they would destroy the social contract of the country.

My parents were right. I wish they were still alive and casting their vote.

[L0oniX]

14. I'd rather feel alone than give up my principles & conscience & march lock step with the lemmings.

[L0oniX]

13. This lefty has not abandoned FDR's New Deal principles and achievements!

[Scuba]

17. Surrender? No, never.

[KoKo]

26. Exactly....!

[theaocp]

18. This goes a long way to explaining

Yet Reed’s harshest salvos are directed at the left itself, which he views as effectively dead: it stands for nothing, and is now defined only by its not being the right.

...President Obama's Nobel peace prize. He wasn't GWB. I guess that's enough for some people and I always wanted President Palin, etc.

[Le Taz Hot]

19. We've not gone anywhere.

Just because the Democratic Party sold out (Clintons, Obama) for money doesn't mean the rank and file have gone anywhere.

[jmondine]

22. The left stands for nothing? Oh, please.

Tell that to Elizabeth Warren, Bernie Sanders, Alan Grayson, Jim McDermott, Howard Dean and countless others.

How short our attention span is. How many of you remember being a liberal during the Reagan years? We are more informed, organized and focused now than just about any other time in history that I have personally witnessed.

[Ampersand Unicode]

24. What did Baldwin do that's considered "giving up"?

I don't see any of the Hollywood liberals marching out in Ferguson or sitting on the steps of the SCOTUS to demand gay equality ASAP. They're too busy promoting their latest flicks and whining about their privacy being violated when they did a striptease for the iCloud.



None of these people seem to have "given up" on much of anything from where I stand. All Baldwin does is continually make an ass of himself by shouting homophobic slurs and beating up paparazzi. Ben Affleck seems to be turning into Mel Gibson with the Maher rant, while buddy Matt Damon seems to have fallen off the face of the earth. Who else is there? John Cusack telling people to hide from the NSA? Charlie Sheen having an obvious stake in drug legalization? Jane Fonda doing covers for AARP?

Jeez, if that's all we've got for pitchmen, no wonder we're SOL.

[nationalize the fed]

25. k/r Truth Cuts Like A Knife

Most of today's "liberals" stand for nothing

That is, when they're not standing for corporate insurance and drone bombings

"A man who stands for nothing will fall for anything"
-Peter Marshall