Tweet
The cultural drift in Western societies is pretty much of one consistently towards liberality on social issues, although these tend only to change markedly over transgenerational timescales. People tend to be less racist than their parents, less homophobic, less sexist, more socially cosmopolitan etc. Even the conservative US will almost inevitably in time have fewer structural racial, gender barriers, gay marriage will become a reality, cannabis will become legalized, standards of putative decency will continue to incrementally relax and so on. This is the battleground the liberals have always had success on, it’s just that the motion is often too slow to be readily apparent from any fixed temporal perspective.
Where the US and other countries like the UK are regressing is on the transfer of wealth and political influence from the lower and middle classes to the wealthiest demographic microfraction. This is the battle we are losing. We will prevail, albeit slowly, on all the other fronts with near inevitability, so we need to let those battles we are winning simmer and concentrate our attention on the one area where we are losing ground- the alarming trend of democracy towards a corporate oligarchy. If we can prevail on this one single front, the regressive forces will be repulsed on all.
Why do you think the GOP’s only apparent non-negotiable core values are tax cuts for the rich, fighting labor and killing campaign finance reform? Because they see very clearly that these issues are the pivotal ones- the battles they and feel they can and must win.
If we can stop the transfer of wealth and influence into the hands of a few wealthy oligarchs, we will inevitably eventually prevail on virtually everything else. Focus, people. The other side certainly is.
5 Comments
“If we can stop the transfer of wealth and influence into the hands of a few wealthy oligarchs, we will inevitably eventually prevail on virtually everything else. Focus, people. The other side certainly is.”
What would you have us DO?
The call to arms theme is rampant daily, but all fail to direct action in one form or another that’s actually worked.
Some would build new parties from the ground up.
Some would build databases in an attempt to rouse, mobilize and direct . . . but the response is less than tepid or lukewarm.
In the meantime, I pursue FDL/MyFDL for all insights shared by others who know more than I do on topics and issues of my interest.
For that, this forum is greatly appreciated . . . as are those comments that contribute further to the insight and knowing I seek.
I’ve been called to arms since I was 12. Someone tell me something I don’t know (my best Tweety impersonation).
I think the answer to your question is to, as I suggest, focus our attention on the economic issues- wealth concentration and its influence on the political process. Gay rights, women’s rights, rational drug policy, economic justice, non-belligerent foreign policy etc. are all laudable goals but those are issues that will turn our way eventually if the democratic process is allowed to work. The people polled are generally out ahead of the politicians on this stuff. What is blocking progress across all these fronts is the systemic corruption of the political process by wealth, which feeds the regressive wealth transfer process in a feedback loop as that’s essentially its whole purpose.
I propose making breaking that feedback loop our political raison d’être; to show the same laser-like focus that the regressives have. The bad guys are more conscious of field of battle than we progressives are, they know where to concentrate their forces. By contrast we are distracted by 1000 different issues- and generally stuff we will all eventually win regardless- and this distraction allows them the tactical space to defeat us.
Kurt:
I understand the need to compartmentalize. They have think tanks like the Heritage foundation, and Cato institute to name a few that act as strategy processing centers feeding their well funded media machine the raw material (talking points) that “frame” the debate.
We, the unwashed masses are not well funded, nor do we have access to the corporate media in any relevant way. So, what’s a Serf to do Governor?
Have an idea: their was this group of poor minority types that
called themselves ACORN. This ACORN found a way to tap into a vast largely untouched pool of votes (the working poor) and delivered about a million extra votes to candidate Obama. In a country of one-person-one vote (Deibold voting machines aside)the only thing that the ones in control fear most are citizens turning up to vote.
Notice how discrediting and taking ACORN out became priority number in the right-wing media. Obama being Obama did nothing to come to their aid: as a matter of fact no one on the left lifted a finger to save this “vote getting machine”.
I have thought about often, what is the solution to the various problems, that face us as a society.
And for me the solution mirrors my Atheist belief system. Following organizations of one type or another never addresses all the issues that I am interested in. It usually means that I have to put up with something that I dont agree with, if I am working within a group.
And always it ends with me realizing that I am aiding my enemies. Much as many Democrats are realizing that there is much that they disagree with within that party.
So at this point unless I learn otherwise, I think the best thing any individual concerned about politics could do. Is vote on issues and candidates that fit with what I think is right, morally and ethically, for the good of the country as an whole. That way I dont lose integrity following some political plan that never was designed to be moral or ethical for the common citizen. Special interest groups always seem to have a not so honest goal, when you get down to it. Most of the time that goal benefits an individual politician or an small minority within that special interest group. Ending with some section of society being screwed over. Basically undermining Democracy in general.
“So at this point unless I learn otherwise, I think the best thing any individual concerned about politics could do. Is vote on issues and candidates that fit with what I think is right, morally and ethically, for the good of the country as an whole.”
After rereading that it may sound as if I think everyone should agree with me. I meant to say: ‘So at this point unless I learn otherwise, I think the best thing any individual concerned about politics could do. Is vote on issues and candidates that fit with what ‘THEY’ think is right, morally and ethically, for the good of the country as an whole.’