and why WE MUST KEEP PULLING LEFT!
"Behind the Left’s commitment to equality is a passion for emancipation from entrenched forms of oppression. Criticizing forms of domination that liberals tolerate or ignore, the Left stands not only for equality, but also for an enhanced concept of freedom."
The Left is truly the Foundation of America. Equality, we are all created equal' use to be the American mantra and the call to others in foreign lands who wanted a better life when we were truly that shiny Place up on a hill..
But through the years, somehow a lot of Americans have been duped into other ways of thinking or conveniently persuaded to not think clearly as the Money Makers, God Spewers, white priviledge distorted US.
"Right is merely a reaction to the Left."
Here's the historical reasons why:
Why America Needs the Left
The United States has gone through three such crises: the slavery crisis culminating in the Civil War; the Great Depression precipitated by the rise of large-scale corporate capitalism, culminating in the New Deal; and the present crisis of “affluence” and global power, which began in the 1960s. Each crisis has generated a Left – first the abolitionists, then the socialists, and finally the New Left – and together, these movements constitute a tradition.
At the core of each of these Lefts is a challenge to the liberal understanding of equality – the formal equality of all citizens before the law. In the first case, the abolitionists, the issue was racial equality. In the second case, the socialists and communists, the issue was social equality, the insistence that democracy requires a minimum level of security in regard to basic necessities. In the third case, the New Left, the issue was equal participation in civil society, the public sphere, the family and personal life.
Indeed, more than the struggle between Left and Right, the struggle between the Left and liberalism over the meaning of equality is at the core of U.S. history. Without a Left, liberalism becomes spineless and vapid; without liberalism, the Left becomes sectarian, authoritarian and marginal. In contrast, the Right is merely a reaction to the Left.
But the difference runs deeper still. Behind the Left’s commitment to equality is a passion for emancipation from entrenched forms of oppression. Criticizing forms of domination that liberals tolerate or ignore, the Left stands not only for equality, but also for an enhanced concept of freedom.
America needs a Left if it is to pull itself out of its much-touted “long-term decline.” By decline I do not mean the shift in economic power associated with the rise of China and India. I do mean the country’s moral decline implicit in its abandonment of the project of equality, as witnessed by the pampering of elites and the demonization of the poor. The only way to reverse this decline is by a revival of the egalitarian traditions – racial equality, social equality, cultural and sexual equality, and equality among the peoples of the world – that have proven indispensable to this country in previous eras of turmoil and difficulty. The possibilities of such a revival, and the hope that is the inevitable forerunner of the Left, were palpable in 2008, when Barack Obama emerged as the anti-Bush, anti-establishment and antiwar candidate, and as the person who at the level of image, rhetoric and resonance positioned himself as signaling a revival of the Left, albeit one appropriate to a new world.
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Almost every public voice in America is in thrall to the rich, the banks, the military and the technology companies; to celebrity culture and to the academic elites. Only a Left can develop the commitment and capacity to go deeper and to think independently on the basis of the country’s core values. To be sure, our history as a Left has been fraught, just as the country’s history has been fraught. We lost our way in the 1970s, just as our predecessors did. But what was lost in those moments was not lost forever. On the contrary, the history of the American Left constitutes a living legacy, one that now includes Occupy Wall Street. It remains for us to reclaim and extend that legacy.
My arms are getting weaker from the constant pulling left, my voice raspier and hoarser from trying to keep others focused on truth, integrity, equality, demands for justice, while so many others on a less left keep throwing so many capitalistic phony christian memes and fairy tales into the battle.
The Right has stolen so many catch phrases that use to be ours- liberal, progressive, freedom of and from religion etc., etc.
We gotta HOLD ON and keep pulling harder left, before we lose this Tug Of War and all get dragged into the HELL of Those RIGHTWING Theocrats stumping for the Greedy Corporate LIARS, THIEVES, and KILLERS!
These words should encourage you as they did me:The Left is truly the Foundation of America.
Let us Not Forget or we will see more and more American Insurgents.
The Making of a Rampage Murderer: What the Brutal Life of Oakland Shooter One L. Goh Says About America
The cruelty, predation and concentration of wealth today has sparked a new type of murder that has more in common with insurgency violence than serial murder.