Saving the American Left: The Case for a New Progressive Creed

[Echo In Light]

Saving the American Left: The Case for a New Progressive Creed
By Bernard Chazelle

07/04/08 "ICH " -- The American left is in the throes of an existential crisis. Some say it's a failure of nerve, others a loss of belief. It is the latter. Neoliberalism has sucked the oxygen out of the left by deflating the political sphere to the economic one. The left must articulate a new creed around three principles: empowerment (the economic is ancillary to the political); social justice (the disadvantaged have an unconditional claim upon the collectivity); and decency (the state may not humiliate anyone). To make its case, the left must redefine that most exalted form of self-interest, patriotism, as pride in a society that grants all of its members the means to belong.

First, the mythology:

Democrats burst with Big Ideas. Unfortunately, ballots and Big Ideas don't mix and the timing is never quite right. But you watch. Once the Congress is theirs, once the White House curtains have been picked, the Dems will get crackin' on 'em Big Ideas—or on the reelection campaign, whichever comes first.

Big Ideas being what they are, big, squeezing them into words can be a challenge. Luckily, with academia's brightest bulbs lighting up the pup tent, liberals can articulate better than anyone why it is they can't articulate anything. So they'll pen earnest treatises on the need to call taxes “membership fees” and trial lawyers “public protection attorneys.” Like it or not, this has proven quite effective, and Howard Dean, for one, likes to credit Lakoff's framing theories for his victorious run for the White House.

Who cares if the Clintonistas and their merry band of DLC hangers-on spoiled the broth with their third-way brand of workfare centrism and smiley-face imperialism? Across the blogosphere, a nascent grassroots movement is afoot, blowing the winds of change against the Repub-lite sellout show. It's coming. This time, it's really coming!

Like all myths, these wishful fantasies contain a grain of truth: Democrats are diffident, tactical, and quick to concede the terms of the debate. The netroots channel genuine passion about liberal causes and the blogs are buzzing. There is palpable excitement out there on the left. A pity there is no there there. America has lefties but no left.

The verdict is brutal. By virtually any measure, the United States is the least progressive nation in the developed world.(1) It trails most of Western Europe in poverty rates, life expectancy, health care, child care, infant mortality, maternity leaves, paid vacations, public infrastructure, incarceration rates, and environmental laws. The wealth gap in the US has not been so wide since 1929. The Wal-Mart founders' family owns as much as the bottom 120 million Americans combined.(2) Contrary to received opinion, there is now less social mobility in the US than in Canada, France, Germany, and most Scandinavian countries.(3,4) The European Union attracts more foreign students than the US, including twice as many from China. Its consensus-driven polity, studies indicate, has replaced the American version as the societal model to which the developing world aspires.(5)

And yet could America be a right-wing nation of closet lefties? A Zogby poll reveals overwhelming support for rehabilitation over incarceration for young offenders. In an NES survey, those who want “government to provide many more services even if it means an increase in spending” outnumber backers of spending cuts by 2 to 1. A Pew study cites the same ratio of people who consider corporate profits excessive. It also finds that a majority of Americans believe “government should help the needy even if it means greater debt.” (6)

More:
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article19694.htm

[LWolf]

1. What an interesting article!

It brings forth many of my own frustrations for discussion.

<snip>

Assuming a progressive project gets underway, what challenges lie ahead? We know where to find the problems—racism, poverty, health, child care, public schools, the penal system, infrastructure, the environment, campaign financing, etc. We know where to find the expertise—the world's best social scientists live in our midst. We know where to find the resources—highest GDP and all that. We know where to find the words for the prose of our policies and the poetry of our vision. In the public mind, however, the right is about winning and the left about not losing.

[Echo In Light]

2. Bump for any who care to read

[Romulox]

3. The word "progressive" is part of the problem...

"Progressive" is the mantle adopted by Clintonistas and center-right "Third way" politicians specifically to put space between themselves and the "liberals" of the 60s and 70s.

Implicit in the current "progressive" movement is that identity politics based on gender, race, sexual orientation, etc. will be the central rallying units. Discussion of class is verboten in the modern "progressive" movement--this concession allows well-to-do "progressives" to control the debate in such a way that does not threaten their own wealth and power.

[Echo In Light]

4. It's a shame the "oppositional" party has strategically distanced itself from Counter Culture libs

This speaks to the divide and rule ruse used by America's one corporate/political party.

[Romulox]

6. Look no further than the current primary process

it has been (quite consciously, imo) framed as a contest between a woman and a black man. In a rather painful demonstration of how third-way identity politics turns back upon itself, supporters of the two remaining candidates have had endless discussions about whether Hillary supporters are "racist", or whether Obama supporters are "sexist".

Discussion of class and poverty have been strictly suppressed by the candidates and the national party. IMO, the entire primary fiasco is an attempt to gerrymander the working-class vote out of the process in favor of coastal elites and their red-state allies.

[Echo In Light]

10. Yes...and man does the hatred surface when one attempts to point this out sometimes

You know, those how DARE you say that posts ... when in many aspects it's simply stating the obvious. Not to mention, it provides a legit sounding PR spin for whichever "electable" candidate isn't chosen for the role.

[Greyhound]

5. What the citizens of America want and support is irrelevant, we are ruled

and owned by a tiny oligarchy that controls the entire political process. That is how we became a reich-wing nation, and until the citizenry stands up and seizes their power from the ruling class, we will remain a reich-wing nation.

[AlphaCentauri]

7. most democrats are not "progressives"

for political gain many adopt the term.

[blindpig]

8. A very confused person

How can one be progressive and yet dismiss Marx, and thus socialism, out of hand? All yer left with is some hair-splitting 3rd-wayism, right back where ya started.

Sooner or later people will accept that socialism is the natural evolutionary step beyond capitalism, both superior and necessary. For the sake of humanity and the planet, let it be sooner.

[Time for change]

9. Some very important points made in this article:

1. That the U.S. is the least progressive nation in the developed world. If that's not true, it is certainly very close to being true. I think that the incarceration rates are among the top reasons for saying this. We lead every country in the world on that score, including China and all of the third world dictatorships. That says something very important about us IMO.

2. Yet, if you poll people on these subjects, they are far to the left of our governement policies.


Connect the dots, and what you have is a government that is unresponsive to the needs and desires of its people -- and increasingly so. In other words, we are losing our democracy. These are very sobering thoughts, and more people ought to be paying attention to them.