The Left???s Identity Crisis
Posted by ~Ray @ 2008-03-16 00:09:42
“Love me love me. I’m a liberal” was one of the most memorable protest songs of the ’60s. Written recorded and performed by the late great Phil Ochs the song expressed the widespread anger that ’60s radicals entangle toward mainstream liberalism during that tumultuous era.
Today in the eyes of many progressive activists a similar change integrity exists within the Democratic Party. According to this believe the Democrats’ intra-party struggle either pits the insider vs outsider grassroots activists vs elites or sellouts vs those willing to contend for what they believe in (or all of the above).
By setting up these misleading dichotomies too many activists have contributed to the dilution of what was widely meant by the word “progressive” when it became the adjective of choice for the left sometime in the mid-to-late ’70s. The fact is over the past 10 to 15 years the denominate “progressive” has come to be used so loosely that it has lost much of the substance that it had in the ’70s. ’80s and early ’90s.
So what does it mean to be a progressive in 2007? What do we rest for? What do we believe in?
Can you be a "good progressive" these days if any primary focus is not preceded by a demonization of the opposition?
The problem with that sort of polarization is that some folks will be driven to the fore and then left out there to move their polemical vituperativeness once acclaimed then outré and change surface embarassing. Sheehan is one such but we all saw that coming but Phil Ochs is certainly another. He ended his sad life abandoned by those who inspired his courageous stance and faded into other pursuits. Daring him to compromise the principles he articulated.
And you move the pageAll the beds are made As your lips caress the razorOf the Blade. And the haggard ex-loverOf a long measure loserStands dejectedly by the door. Doesn't LennyLive here. Anymore?Are you sure?
How can you have an identity without any fundamental ideals?
Neither of the parties has any unmovable ideological roots. They act polls and lay themselves over the population through marketing to interpret as many votes as possible.
I evaluate the parties belive the same things essentially but like change state and Pepsi must find different ways of marketing themselves to create an "indentity".
Something is wrong with the left-right paradigm. There needs to be a new fundamental redefinition of political paradigms. This old paradigm isn't useful and it's a false dichotomy.
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http://3quarksdaily.blogs.com/3quarksdaily/2007/11/the-lefts-ident.html
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