The following is my half of a discussion I had online regarding this story:
I really don’t want to have to point this out. 😐 But obviously people have reached their tolerance for the kind of status-quo, meandering, lazy, “middle-of-the-road” (it’s not the middle), milquetoast, politics that have passed for normal from the Democratic Party since I don’t know when to be honest — a long time. At least since Bill Clinton (whom I did not vote for, and I’ve never voted Republican ever for anything to my knowledge). And clearly history wants this Class, this ideology (really?), this waste of resources to move out of the way and allow human progress in whatever nasty or beautiful form to proceed. But the waste isn’t going anywhere on its own accord despite having had plenty of time on the world’s stage to demonstrate its efficacy and correctness; it hasn’t. So, what I didn’t want to have to point out is that this Class must exit the world’s stage one way or another. And I’m just the messenger here!!!! I’m not one of the misguided zealots who tried in a very dishonorable, unethical, cowardly, brutal way to murder these human beings (who are just like the rest of us in the ways that really matter, unfortunately). I hope people are open to receiving this message eventually before too much more is wasted unnecessarily.
I don’t mean to escalate the argument. 🙂 But I disagree that the left must move toward a more progressive track. Instead I feel that progress requires certain things to happen and the American Left can either do it or not do it. That’s its choice. And it’s either not making the choice or it’s making the wrong one, over and over again. Just never the right one. Which is why it has to go.
I’m just citing examples from memory but for starters ratifying the UN’s Declaration of Human Rights. Making that part of the platform. And not necessarily the document itself but the spirit which is that in this era we should all be receiving safety, shelter, sustenance, love, medical care, humane and happy accommodations. . . . there is no need for this false scarcity that we insist must be true but isn’t.
The false scarcity is purely a product of how we choose to divide our resources. It’s complicated! 🙂 Of course! Because there are billions of people! But it can be broken down into parts, regions, nations, countries, states, cities, towns, tribes, families.
These are all choices. And the worst thing, THE WORST THING, is to be in the middle of the ocean, in a sinking boat, just sitting there, doing nothing. Because that’s what we’re doing. We’re doing nothing while the perfect options and perfect moments and perfect opportunities seem to slip by. But that’s also an illusion. Because there is no perfect! 🙂 But there is what we can do right now. And that is the definition, to me, of boldness, of bold progressive action. It is the antithesis of the status quo, this sinking boat we’re all happy to keep sitting in for some reason.
And don’t get me wrong. This goes not only for the Democratic leadership but anyone who would be called neoliberals, neoconservatives, anyone in the establishment status quo that plagues us at the moment and has led this country down the wrong track for decades, since World War II at least.
