It's been a very long time since I wrote a blog post. The reason I stopped, and the reason I likely won't do too much writing in the future is twofold. For one, I have become so disgusted by politics, and two I've become so horrified by the every-person-for-themself attitude across the country, that realize now that before I can concern myself with the rest of the world, I have to take care of myself, because no one else will. No FDR is going to come riding in on a white horse to save the country. Neoliberalism has devasted our social safety-net, financiers and fossil-fuel interests have taken control of both major parties in the world’s only super-power, and a blatant Fascist and Rascist is running for President of the United States.
What does one do with that?
If neither side will acknowledge the faults of their Parties, how can we ever fix this mess?
And before someone starts saying to me, how can you compare the faults of Republicans with the faults of Democrats? Let me just say that I'm not. One side clearly is far more dangerous and the implications of that side gaining power are terrifying. But to ignore the faults of our own side is disengenuous at best, and disturbing at worst. Forty years ago, outside social issues, no democrat would have called Hillary Clinton’s agenda Progressive. Forty-three years ago, Nixon proposed a Universal Basic Income. Now Progressives scoff at such suggestions. We've abdicated responsibility for the long term, for a short term back-slapping, self-satisfied short-term agenda and because if it, we have lost all semblance of a strategy.
We’ve lost folks. This war was one by the Right years ago, and they laugh at us when we talk fight for the bathroom rights of transgender people while the Big Business interests squeeze every last penny out of our economy and crush our movements like a bug. We go on and on about a $15 minimum wage, that while certainly an improvement, will do little to solve the systemic economic devastation wreaking havoc in communities across the country. We distract ourselves with Presidential races, what comment Trump made today, what he said yesterday and what he might say tomorrow while the Koch Brothers silently and efficiently flood a left-leaning state like Vermont with hundreds of millions of dollars in Ad time.
Until the Left comes up with s truly viable long-term strategy, one that involves not settling for distractions and back-slapping but instead building the infrastructure of a movement for the future, we will continue losing on the big issues, while winning safe-spaces and menial minimum wage increases.
Until we acknowledge problems with our side, such as the anger many people feel when they are forced to make heartbreaking decisions about whether to keep or abort a child because they just don't have the means to give that child a decent life. Meanwhile many other, far poorer people just have child after child without giving a seconds thought about what it costs their fellow tax-payers, and when we defend that person’s right to collect benefits for their irresponsible decisions, or neighbors get so angry, they vote for someone like Donald Trump who promises to take back the country from those awful lefties.
Obviously I believe no child should go hungry because of the sins of their parents, but to blindly charge to the defense of the right of these irresponsible people to do what they like, while the rest of us make hard decisions that tears us apart inside pisses off people that should be our natural allies! And to pretend that immigration has NO effect on wages is outlandish. This is why the hard Working families that struggle every day to get by are not showing up in waves to vote. We have to start acknowledging their concerns, they are real, and they are worth our attention.
We on the Left are losing every important fight because we're through it our resources behind inconsequential battles that do little to further our economic and societal rights, and at the same time we abdicate our responsibility toward the hardest working Americans.
WE CREATED TRUMP.
And until we acknowledge that, nothing is going to change. I will go on with my life, struggling, making tough decisions, taking care of myself because no one else will. That's how the majority of Americans feel. That's why they don't come out to vote in their interests. That's why they're easily swayed by rabble-rousers and populists. And that's also why we are losing. We may win this election, and I myself will probably be voting for Hillary Clinton. But to continue doing the same things that haven't worked for forty years is the definition of insanity. We're blind to all of our weakest points. We may win this battle, but we're getting our asses handed to us in the war. Time to think Big, think Bold, and most importantly, time to think long term.