My two cents, which, before the collapse of the stock-market, was worth much more.
*****
When I first got to the left-o-sphere in the summer of 2004 I remember watching as our opponents taunted us with the fact that everyone we supported in elections lost.
“0-19” was the taunt. “Don’t bother with them, they’re 0-19!”
But then came the 2006 midterms and the 2008 election and we were “0-19” no longer.
And yet… we still have yet to get one fucking thing actually done.
Iraq War… not yet. FISA… nope. Torture… Lieberman (recently)… drilling… even impeachment (for some).
I can’t, honestly, think of one legislative victory this community can tally on the “good gals” side.
And, I, for one, worry its because we’re increasingly seen as the FAR left.
Look, its easy to play the victim and to decide that every member of Congress is tone deaf and elitist and clubby and all the c “them vs. us” arguments that make the enemization of our Representatives possible, but logic and statistics suggest that its more likely that SOME responsibility lies with our strategy.
I believe (<— note only one asshat’s opinion) we’ve (insomuch as there is a “we”) been unable to translate our election success (where they need us for money and votes and foot-soldiers) into having a voice in governance because we increasingly seem to only have one methodology for communication… fury.
THEY don’t want to deal with us for governance because THEY don’t relish an angry mob with flaming keyboards calling them bigots and racists and homophobes and sell-outs and incompetent.
Now, I can hear the counter argument bubbling up, “FUCK THEM! THEY WORK FOR US!” but the verb in that statement (the verb that is not FUCK) is WORK and they’re not WORKING for us.
It appears to be a fallacy that we can get THEM to capitulate through constantly brow-beating.
THEY are avoiding us because they simply do not think that we — the FAR LEFT — can be reasoned with.
THEY believe, and somewhat rightly so, that we are much more interested in clinging to our self-righteous fury then in being able to manage our disappointments and seeking compromise so they show up when its time for the cash or the grass-roots jolt of energy and then disappear when it comes time to legislate.
THEY believe we are the extremists, no more “reality based” than those at Little Green Footfungus because every slight seems to wipe away YEARS of good governance on issues we care about.
We (again with that we) MUST learn to find a voice of Progressive Moderation, which both stays true to our belief, but also learns how to lobby without brass-knuckles, because the whole “withhold the money and votes” threat only ends up hurting us more than them.
Sure, once in a very blue moon Al Wynn gets a swift kick in the primary from Donna Edwards, but more often then not incumbents win and live to vote anew.
I get it… I get it… blogging is a medium that feeds on heat… and typed words… silence being this form’s death knell, but it is dismaying to increasingly open my browser to witness a march toward the fringe, especially because each step away only increases the tendency to shout even louder.
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…be kind.”
–Tea and Sympathy.
in wishing for a little less heat and a little more light.
But when this topic comes up, I always think of an essay written by leftvet almost 2 years ago, On Moderates and Radicals. Here’s how he ends it:
I left you a long comment at dkos, so I won’t re-post it here. But I think this is a very well-intentioned, but very wrong-headed, explanation.
…that the dk discussion is richer, not goin’ there today. And I don’t have the cred of Edger, pico, or NLinSP to say much…
…but I think there are at least three big issues here. The first is exactly what NLinSP framed: the radicals move the discussion and are an important part of the process.
The second is that the left seems good at ad-hoc, short term cooperation and crappy at longitudinal efforts which stand apart from government and party.
And the third is: in the left, to a tremendous degree, the radicals stand for authenticity. The “radical” on the left is often asking for something like food, or shelter, or medical care, or the most basic legal protection. The “radical” on the right is asking to have queers burned at the stake. I don’t think these arguements land equally…for anyone, regardless of their ostensible social orientation. When you deny authenticity, when you deny what is true: thirty five thousand people starve to death each day, two million people in prison is too many…stuff like that…the mechanism of denial needs to be sharper, a velvet contempt, proper and righteous in its moderation. Because if you start to question it…well, there’s the reality, all smelly and in pain, right outside your door.
So, eh, while I think we could learn a lot about how to cooperate with each other…I don’t agree.
Less than a third actually vote regularly. That number can be divided up amongst infinite spectrum of belief systems. On top of that we have a “media” system, or rather not.
Satan heads the “Illuminati” and the “Illuminati” controls both political parties. Ron Paul, Dennis Kucinich and Cynthia McKinney seem to be immune. Maybe all the rest have been either bought and paid for or hopelessly mis-informed/programmed.
Now more than ever the traditional stances of both political parties have shown their true and undying allegance to globally oriented organizations and themes making us mere peasant slaves to Globo-Corp.
loudly to me, Jeffrey, fwliw. i have long valued persistence over outward shows of flame and fury and broken keyboards, and think this essay touches on that point. in my thinking, there is no force that matches not giving up day-in, day-out, through one misadministration to another.
of moderate, radical, center, liberal are all in flux. All the positions political labor under the propaganda that calls itself the Media. What was radical in 2004, actually calling this radical coup by the right what it was, has moved to being the accepted truth, by the majority of the moderate public.
It’s the established pols, the powerful status quo of both parties who marginalize the Far Left. Even the so called progressive pols, do not wish to have the line pushed back to where liberal is something normal. For decades liberals have been vilified, as radical out of step with the political myth of centrist right. The Democratic party added to this by becoming another branch of the corrupt corporatism that is now unraveling.
As far as electoral politics go we may have not changed the faces of the powerful machines that still control our government but the ‘moderates’ I know are totally disgusted with the government period. No distinctions ideological just a basic distrust of all who brought us here. I read a book years ago by Joan Dideon called Political Fictions, and I think it applies. The premise was that both parties have no interest in changing the fictions that keep the voting pool where it lies.
Howard Dean is way to the right of my radical politics but he brought me to both the net and grassroots of the party with the line I heard at a rally in 04. I’m Howard Dean and I’m from the Democratic end of the Democratic Party. The net has changed the face of politics, just not the entrenched pols. The list of progressive politicians will increase it has increased. It is up to the Far Left to make sure that the myths that say Blue Dogs are inevitable and Joe Sixpacks rule, and there is no political will are put to rest.
Today I was amazed at the numbers of active new members on dkos. They were discussing how they came. Most came to dkos because they heard of it via the traditional media, they said it was right wingers raving about the radicals on dkos that made them search it out. They are not radicals their way more conservative then I, but they will like I did, learn to form coalitions. They will listen and it will stop being something they are afraid of and stretch the political definitions designed to maintain the status quo.
The Overton Window has moved definitions are up for grabs. The pols are going to have to adjust and find some new tricks. Me I’m just going to keep raving with my altered perceptions of where I stand in the political landscape as assimilation works two ways. The center position is also up for grabs.
my response.
“Not Ready to Make Nice”
Sorry, it just got too long for a comment.
just a ‘hello.’ i thoroughly enjoyed this essay and what you brought to the table. i think this discussion is vital, and happy to see another pov other than “anger is the answer” (and i don’t discount the value of anger and rage in the slightest, rage is my friend!) and hope you keep writing here about this topic. ‘we’ need this discussion, i think.