The history of Liberalism in America has always been a double edged sword. A split personality that pits establishment Liberalism from on High with its adherents and sycophants versus Liberalism from below in the form of grassroots coalitions of leftists and common folks.
Conservatives are now developing their own political dichotomy with the Tea Party activists and establishment Corporate conservatives. Conservatives from on high and conservatives from below... what a concept! There isn’t much history or inspiration for Conservatives from below. The Confederacy? McCarthyism? George Wallace blocking the schoolhouse doors? Mission Accomplished? Glenn Beck ?
I know. Ronald Reagan!
And in the great Colorado gubernatorial tradition of quasi-plagiarism, I give you this reworked and rehashed article from Todd Chretien, editor at socialist.org. I think it is relevant to what is happening lately.
Liberalism from the leftist grassroots has a powerfully inspiring and important history in the U.S. including the anti-slavery movements and the suffragette movements for women’s rights, much of the labor union and civil rights leadership; expansion of the educational system, and more recently environmental laws, the Vietnam, Iraq and Afghanistan anti-war movements.
A history created from leftist activists and grass roots organizing has always been an important basis for legislation and reform that benefits the common people and our daily struggles. It is a peoples history of leftist activism from below. A trickle up economics if you will. Fighting for working families and working peoples everywhere.
Liberalism from the grassroots has often developed a powerful critique of Liberalism from on High. Time and time and time and again, the conflict between activists with boots on the ground and their supposed political champions and title holders in high places has led to truly inspiring political struggles in American political history:
In the 1930s, the struggles of workers in all aspects of industry and business were conducted by liberalism from the grassroots and opposed by Liberals from on High during the evolution of the New Deal. Even FDR had to confess, "I'm the best friend the profit system ever had." Many times he and the Liberal political establishment sided with the bosses during strikes and labor disputes.
The sacrifices of these common workers and grassroots people are the basis of our labor gains that we take for granted today. Conversely they are the roots of our problems that face us today and our children and grandchildren with their legislative battles into the future.
March 1932- Police kill striking workers at Ford’s Dearborn plant.
October 1933- 18,000 cotton workers went on strike in Pixley,CA. Four were killed before a pay-hike was finally won.
1934- The Electric auto light strike where two strikers were killed and over two hundred wounded by National Guardsmen. Some 1,300 National Guard troops, including included eight rifle companies and three machine gun companies, were called in to disperse as many as 10,000 strikers and protestors.
May 1934 Police stormed striking truck drivers in Minneapolis who were attempting to prevent truck movement in the market area.
September 1934 A strike in Rhode Island is part of a national movement to obtain a minimum wage for textile workers, resulting in the deaths of three workers. Over 420,000 workers ultimately went on strike.
30 May 1937 Police kill 10 and wounded 30 during the "Memorial Day Massacre" at the Republic Steel plant in Chicago.
Finally in June 25, 1938 The Wages and Hours (later Fair Labor Standards) Act was passed, banning child labor and setting the 40-hour work week. The Act went into effect in October 1940, and was upheld in the Supreme Court on February 3rd,1941.
Martin Luther King Jr.'s "Letter from a Birmingham Jail", expresses and documents his deep disappointment with mainstream liberals and moderates who argued that civil rights should "wait" until the political powers felt ready to hand down legislation for the black masses. MLK refuted this idea and argued that only direct mass action would force the politicians' hands from on high.
"We had no alternative except to prepare for direct action, whereby we would present our very bodies as a means of laying our case before the conscience of the local and the national community."
Martin Luther King had to threaten Liberalism from on High in order to force it to do what it said it would do. King included the full text of the Letter in his 1964 book Why We Can't Wait . It is a truly inspirational and well written case to the Liberal elites and Moderate sympathizers of social justice and direct action of that era.
The truth is that there is a dark side to liberalism from above. Teddy Roosevelt, FDR, LBJ and Woodrow Wilson advocated and employed military power to transform America into the greatest imperialist empire the world has ever known. Under the banners of "civilizing" colonial and aboriginal peoples or "protecting American interests," liberalism from above has never shied away from "wielding a big stick."
Today, Obama's decisions to keep Bush's Defense Secretary William Gates, William Geitner, Ben Bernanke and Hillary Clinton as Secretary of State--not to mention the expansion of troops into Afghanistan--all indicate he intends to stand squarely in this tradition of liberalism from on high.
President Obama won in 2008 on a massive volunteer organization, first inspired by Howard Dean and an organized labor movement. Liberals from on high want to keep it alive to help the Democrats win the midterm elections this year and Obama a second term in 2012. They don’t want to allow it any independent life of its own though, as so often is the problem with reform and change movements throughout recent history.
The many divisive social issues of Health Insurance Reform, Gay Rights, Unemployment, War, Climate change, Financial Reform, and Immigration have divided the Democratic party into Liberals from on High and Liberals from below once again. Like it or not for its simplistic categorization we must be prepared to hold Democrats’ and Obama’s feet to the fire.
The flame wars here on DKOS are classic too. They are filled with the same passions, stories, polemics and sacrifices that have polarized American liberals for centuries.
IMHO it is important to resist the polemics here. I have been very guilty however, it is important to stay focused during these unusual times of economic unrest and social upheaval. It is not very easy to remain silent and untouched.
I know.
Finally, as a parting shot, I will leave you the immortal words of Dr. Martin Luther King:
I have almost reached the regrettable conclusion that the Negro's great stumbling block in his stride toward freedom is not the White Citizen's Counciler or the Ku Klux Klanner, but the white moderate, who is more devoted to "order" than to justice; who prefers a negative peace which is the absence of tension, to a positive peace which is the presence of justice; who constantly says: "I agree with you in the goal you seek, but I cannot agree with your methods of direct action"; who paternalistically believes he can set the timetable for another man's freedom; who lives by a mythical concept of time and who constantly advises the Negro to wait for a "more convenient season."