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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsIt's not about "moving the party to the Left"-it's about getting the party to fight for the MAJORITY
Last edited Thu Nov 13, 2014, 05:54 AM - Edit history (2)
Some act as if the goal of liberals, progressives, or radicals is just to "move the party to the left", to change the party's place on the political spectrum for the sake of changing it. This implies that there couldn't possibly be legitimate reasons in the reality of life to change what the party stands for, that the goal of re-orienting the party is ideology for ideology's sake.
That simply isn't true.
The truth is that there is a massive majority of people out there who have been totally left out in the cold by the changes in this country since 1981...and there is no party, at the moment, that even tries to speak for those people:
...the victims of downsizing, wagecuts, benefits cuts and work reduction...the people who have to work seventy hours a week to get the buying power they got from the wages they earned working forty hours a week prior to 1980...
...the victims of outsourcing who gave their lives to the companies they worked for and were then just cast aside and left to die when those companies moved the jobs they had done all their lives to other countries...with no word of protest from OUR party's leaders at all.
...the victims of regional economic cleansing(such as the people of the Rust Belt, the inner cities, and large areas of Appalachia an the rural South)left with nothing because those with all the economic power decided that their entire regions needed to be left to die in the name of "effeciency" and greater corporate profits.
...the victims of drawbridging, who had opportunities taken away from them through all of the above plus massive increases in college tuition and massive cuts in scholarships.
What we've been saying is that our party, the supposed "party of the people", needs to damn well actually fight FOR the people, needs to represent and take up the banners of those innocent victims of the last thirty-three years of ruling-class vengeance for the New Deal, the Fair Deal and the Great Society.
We need to deal in reality:
the reality that it is morally wrong and nationally poisonous to simply say nothing while large numbers of people are cast aside, declared valueless and unworthy, and left to rot amid hoarded plenty.
It's not about where we are on the spectrum. It's about who we are supposed to fight for and why we are supposed to be here.
One party of the rich is enough.
One party of the cruel, the judgmental and the miserly is enough.
One party of the people who look down on their fellow humans is enough.
One party of big donors and luxury boxes at the convention hall is enouch.
America needs a SECOND party...a democratic party, if you will.
Is that really too much to ask?
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99th_Monkey
(19,326 posts)This is seriously brilliant with straight-forward good will,
I hope this goes viral somehow, if it does it will
change many hearts in a really good way.
Thank you for this convincing & thoughtful reflection on how to really
communicate with our already pathetically dumbed-down electorate,
(see the 2014 "drubbing"
.
Ken Burch
(50,254 posts)Thanks for your kind post.
mindwalker_i
(4,407 posts)and miss totally obvious points. So I agree, this is an excellent OP!
Cha
(297,167 posts)silvershadow
(10,336 posts)expanded, and with greater benefits. So, I agree with your assessment, yet it's not even enough at this point. The only way to stop the taking is to oppose it with expansion plans. That's only part of why I am pushing for a move to the left.
Ken Burch
(50,254 posts)My OP was broad-strokes thinking, not specific policy planks.
I agree with you, of course.
We need to defend SSN and to defend the general idea that it's valid to use government(and to democratize the way government works) in the service of improving the quality, dignity and meaning of our lives.
silvershadow
(10,336 posts)to be on my mind. I am absolutely dependent on SS and Medicare, as I am catastrophically disabled. And I am scared to death of them at this point. (Oh, and I'm not eligible for Obamacare).
Ken Burch
(50,254 posts)You are fighting for your life, and our rulers pretty much want you to lose that fight.
Please don't give up hope...you are of value and you deserve to live if you wish to live.
Every day you keep going is an act of defiance and resistance. Thank you for your courage amidst all the misery you face.
Nail on the head, Ken Burch! Every word. 
Martin Eden
(12,864 posts)... consistently through actions, and the majority will come to realize it and vote their interests.
The corporate media will characterize that as the far LEFT, but it truly is the CENTER.
Scuba
(53,475 posts)... a good portion of those who don't usually bother to vote would show up at the polls. Then Democrats would win and would be expected to implement the policies on which they campaigned. Their corporate owners can't have that.
That's why the President names a guy like Tom Wheeler to head the FCC before he says populist things like showing support for net neutrality. It's important cover. Gotta pretent they have the people's backs while making sure the corporatists get everything they want.
baldguy
(36,649 posts)Some believe it's enough to only shout insults from the sidelines at the people trying to do the real work, lest they dirty themselves with being confronted by real people.
LondonReign2
(5,213 posts)It's not, we have to win elections to do that...
It's if we do that, we win elections.
baldguy
(36,649 posts)Virtue is all well & good. But if you don't have someone sitting in an elective office pushing progressive legislation through and getting political support for it in the halls of power you'll get nowhere.
LondonReign2
(5,213 posts)The alternative, as we've seen, is to stand for nothing other than Me Tooism (Coal? Me too! Guns? me too! Keystone? Me too!) and continue to lose elections.
You can't get elected running on Me Tooism and then push progressive legislation; you get elected by pushing progressive legislation -- also know as Actually Standing Up For Democratic Principles-- in the first place.
Ken Burch
(50,254 posts)But there's no conflict between trying to win elections and being the kind of party I called for in the OP.
a kennedy
(29,655 posts)one, clear, simple, voice and drill it into the masses over, and over, and over, and over. i.e. repubs, faux noise, cnn, and some talking heads on msnbc.
Teamster Jeff
(1,598 posts)