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I have noticed that a common complaint
coming from the hard left in our party left
is that there has been a
"long march rightward in this country"
(presumably since the civil rights movement
and the heyday of the 60's). I kind of
feel they blame "the centrists" (whatever
that means) for this movement.
Frankly, I think it's kind of inaccurate.
On many social levels, we are far more "left"
(whatever that means) than we were 30 years
ago. On other, more political levels, we may
be more "right" (whatever that means).
I don't blame the "centrists" for this. Rather,
I see it as a symptom of the disease of centralized
corporate power and a very strong reaction on the
part of the right to liberal values.
Religion, fundamentalism, anger against abortion and gun control,
racism, and a well-organized propaganda campaign
spreading over 30 years has galvanized their anger
and jaundiced view.
The right is pulling, constantly, to the right
and they have inched the center their way.
The left is trying to pull back,
like tug of war. I see that on both
ends of this rope the extremes are accusing of
those towards the center as not "pulling hard enough".
Well, I am far left in many views and I share a
utopian vision with many of you that we all live
in peace and prosperity. A place where there is
no drug war, there is no war on the impoverished.
Where a person is judged by the content of there
character and not the color of their skin. A place
where we rely on alternative energy. A place of
inclusion, multi-nationalism, and multi-lateral
institutions making the world a safer place. There
are many, many, many other wonderful ideas and ideals
I share with the Kucinich's and Kucinich fans of the
world.
But the problems is, how do we get there? How do we
win the tug of war? How do we shift the psychology
so that the idealogical center is much closer to our
ideals than where they seem to be drifting.
And that is where the hard left and the moderate left
diverge, at least in some respects.
To go back to the tug of war analogy, I think to win this
game "pulling hard" will not win. The right will pull
back just as hard, and even harder (because they have money).
What we need to do is to get more people on our team.
One more for us is one less for them. So even with the same
amount of force we can get that flag to move toward our
direction over the sand.
How do we get more people to our side of the rope?
I think first we have to be non-threatening. By that,
I mean we need to offer a better and brighter vision of
the future but not threaten the way of life of people
we want to convert.
Take energy for instance. A hard left view is that we
are all consuming too much and that the planet is
going to implode if we don't stop driving cars and leaving
the lights on. They disparage America as this fat, bloated
energy sucking hog. I believe that is the wrong approach.
Frankly, I think we should rather take the tact of the
positive spin. That is that energy is boundless. I know
there are skeptics on that but they can kiss my ass.
More energy falls on the face of the earth in the form
of sunlight in 3 days than all the energy in all the oil
reserves in the world. At least that's what I have read
in the Nation and some other places. WE need to say
"hey, WTF are doing whoring ourselves out to Saudi Arabia
for....we need to harness our energy at home". Forget all
the reduce, reuse, recycle BS and start creating a psychological
momentum that rather than fight the instincts for human
beings to consume, we will master the flow of energy. It
is with this sort of "rising tide lifts all boats" thought
process will we win hearts and minds.
You can use the same sort of thinking to all sorts of
economic and social problems. That would support our case
that we are the party of peace and prosperity, of boundless
wealth and optimism for the future.
But we have to be patient, we can't have "National Health
Care" now. But it is a reasonable 30 year goal. Sorry, but
I am in the biz and it would be a mess to try to switch
over to single payer right now. It would put millions of
people out of jobs, it would anger a zillion different
sectors of that industry, and it would not really do what
we want it to. But again, it is a great goal that is something
we need to psychologically prepare our country for, something
we have not yet done.
So, getting back to my original point...
The "purist-centrist" battle for the soul of this party is going to kill us if we don't straighten it out and start playing together.
The moderate left and the hard left generally have a
similar vision of a great many things. We just need to
come to a consensus how to get there. In order to get
the political strength to do it we need more people on our
team. To do that, we need to convince the non-believers that
we are right on the issues (including the moral issues) and
get them to convert. When we have more power the balance of
forces will shift to the left. The way we get more people
to see our way of thinking is to be non-threatening and
to reframe our issues in positive terms that will bring
peace, success, and prosperity.
Post away, flames included.
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