Reply #289: the Left has eroded significantly. [View All]

[ChillbertKChesterton]

In the minds of most people, in the arena of mainstream public discourse, "the left" is what you'll find on MSNBC. This is the problem.

For most left-leaning people who vote for the Democratic Party, they define the horizon of the struggle for left-wing politics as supporting gay rights, multiculturalism, and to a lesser degree health care and the welfare state.


I understand that "Leftist" means something else than standard 'liberalism', but Leftism has no voice in the United States. Of the 435 members of the House, and 50 Senators, how many of these people would you consider "Leftist"? 2? 3?

The right-wing and the Republican party have a loud, hard, vocal movement of people who identify themselves as "Tea Party". Yes, the tea party has had corporate funding and support since it was invented, but they serve a function for the right and they do it beautifully well.

What is the Left in this country all about? What does the left stand for?

There are crowds of working class people showing up at protests and demonstrations showing their support for wealthy oligarchs, rallying for lower taxes for corporations, screaming demands to repeal the health care bill, mass calling their representatives to bust unions across the country.

Where are the crowds of leftists calling for increases in public community news organizations? Where have the anti-war crowds gone? Maybe this is just my ignorance but I haven't heard of any major demonstrations against our multiple wars since Obama entered the white house. Where are groups of people organizing and discussing alternatives to our corporatist economic system?

Working-class republican voters are not the enemy, if the left-wing cannot appeal to working-class people, there is no hope. The Democratic Party has just as much corporate money and wallstreet strings attached to it as the Republicans, so unless the left gains the support of the working class, there is no way to win this battle.