A New Writer I'm Following

 

It just so happens that it was at CounterPunch that I first read this essay: "The Left Can Only Win if There Is a Left" and I decided to check out who the writer was.

It’s easy to chalk it up to the powers of conformity or propaganda, but many of the loyalists are unionists, intellectuals, and dissenters of some kind. It is among these types — who should be part of an anti-establishment opposition — that we can measure just how deeply the ruling class maintains control and dominates thinking. 

They Say Jump, and the Loyal Left Say, “How High?”

Testing and training.

When Hillary Clinton chose anti-abortionist Tom Kaine as VP, she was testing women’s loyalty to see if they were more attached to the Democrats than to their reproductive rights. Obama/Biden repeated the drill when they failed to act on Roe. Obama/Biden killed thousands of Africans and threw Black homeowners under the bus after 2009, but they were still favored by millions of Black voters.

Biden/Harris let the PRO Act die a quiet death, broke their promise on the minimum wage, and, most importantly, crushed the railway workers’ strike. Yet, no major union dared to criticize them publicly, let alone undertake the struggle needed to elect Democrats who “actually answer to workers.” Almost all union officials are steadfast loyalists who settle for photo-ops, promises, and puny incremental changes.

...

Lesser evil arguments are insidious forms of surrender that allow people to accept genocide, austerity, and climate chaos while still maintaining a left identity and thinking of themselves as righteous and reasonable. The loyalists sleep in this field of dreams — that is the point. 

...

We must have a positive program. A loyal left cannot create one as they remain under the tutelage of the Democratic Party — that is the lesson of the two failed Sanders campaigns and the squishing of the Squad. 

We can build a program for peace, economic and political democracy, and immediate climate action, which is already being born by the activists in the social movements.

Richard Moser's "Be Freedom" blog shall be added to my blog-roll!!!!!!

[Fanfare of trumpets.]