Is the Left Pushing America to the Right?

When left-leaning American’s abandon their principles for what they believe is politically expedient, they inadvertently shift the center of the national political spectrum farther to the right. Even as many of the supposed American left criticize Obama and his administration for capitulating before negotiating, as a whole, they have done the same thing. Whether the goal has been to avoid conflict, appear to be the more mature party, or attempt to coerce the right into matching their sample, the result has been a dismal failure and the destruction of the dynamic necessary for a rational public conversation. By constantly tuning the middle into the new left, the resulting new middles keeps moving farther to the lunatic fringe of the right.

Not since the national psychosis experienced during the ‘Red Scare’ days of the early 50’s has the ‘main stream’ of public debate entertained so much wing-nutery. Granted, there’s always been a fair number of nuts, bigots, idiots, psychos, and jack-asses sent to legislatures across the country, as well as DC, perhaps for no other purpose than to represent the nuts, bigots, idiots, psychos, and jack-asses in their constituency, but the imbalance that seems to have been created by an apathetic left has provided fertile ground for some asshats of legendary proportions to be entertained as serious contenders for positions of leadership.

http://youtu.be/e9bvreW08X0

When words such as presidential, focused, masterful, impressive, and intelligent are being used to describe Michele Bachmann, we either have a serious misunderstanding of their meanings, or the meanings of these words have been seriously distorted by relativism. If Michele Bachmann can be considered relatively intelligent compared to politicians as a whole, let alone potentially presidential, there’s no wonder that the economy is in the shitter, new wars are popping up faster than political sex scandals, Republicans are hiring comedians to imitate the president and tell black jokes to white people, and more laws are being proposed to limit womens reproductive rights and govern who’s allowed to love whom than are being proposed to govern the banks that just finished robbing the citizens of trillions of dollars. No matter how hard the corporate controlled main stream media strains to present these characters, and the games they play, as credible, the truth of their professional incompetence, and personal disorders, are difficult to ignore.

By abdicating their responsibility to fight for their fundamental principles, the left has allowed the lunatic fringe of the right to multiply within the political arena like vermin without any natural predators. Kurt Vonnegut made the astute observation that American politics has become the perfect sanctuary for sociopaths. This is true. And, left unchecked, that narcissism, and callous disregard for the rights and welfare of others that we’ve come to expect from politicians, has combined with the lunacy of religious fundamentalism, bigotry, xenophobic nationalism, and a general lack of critical thinking skills, so that those politicians and political movements that used to provide comic relief have now become potentially dangerous threats to the freedom and liberty of the country.

Sarah Palin, Newt Gingrich, Herman Cain, Rick Perry, and Rick ‘the santorum‘ Santorum, could all be mentioned rather than picking only on poor Michele Bachmann. In fact, the list could quickly grow to depressing dimensions. The rest of the world mustn’t know whether to laugh or cry. On one hand, it’s hilarious that Americans are actually considering these mental midgets as potentials for the office of president; on the other, it must scare the crap out of them that one of these unstable fools could end up with their finger on the button.

When Sarah was chosen as McCain’s running mate there must have been millions of sphincters simultaneously contracting around the planet. He’s old, she’s crazy, WTF are the Yankees thinking? No wonder there was global celebration when Obama won. Maybe that’s why he won the Nobel prize too. Maybe it had nothing to do with him or his accomplishments. It would explain why he won it when he’d barely even become president. Perhaps it could have gone to anyone that kept that fanatical Christian nationalist from Wasilla from being one aging heart-beat away from the presidency.

So, perhaps the left isn’t ‘pushing’ the country to the right, but it isn’t doing much to stop the slide either. Capitulating to difficult people may seem like it creates peace, but that peace is short-lived, and comes at a terrible cost. Like parents who acquiesce to misbehavior, it may seem easier at the moment but the price of not checking those behaviors will come back to haunt in years to come. This seems to be where (what there is of) the left in American finds itself now. It’s come time to do the really hard uphill work because the easier, though more tedious, work wasn’t done before.

There’s no use whining about how much work it’s going to be. There’s no use complaining about how dug-in they are, and how hard it will be to get them out. There’s no use complaining about the mountain of legislation, budgetary malfeasance, and corporate and financial deregulation that will have to be corrected. It was allowed to happen. This goes the same for within the Democrat as well. There’s enough ‘blue dogs’ in the supposed party of the left (center-right is much more accurate) to start a kennel, and Obama has more Wall Street Banksters on his cabinet than Newt Gingrich has ethical inconsistencies.

It’s time to forget parties and get get reacquainted with principles. Even with a Democrat executive branch, as well as Senate, Americans are faced with more numerous and expanding wars, an increase in the number of people without access to affordable health care, continued erosion of individual rights and liberties through the enhanced Patriot Act, and a new budget with austerity measures that will devastate the working class while the richest 1% will get even richer. There is no ‘left’ in America’s institutionalized politics.

Now, like the parents of an 18 year old that is about to throw their lives away because they weren’t given the guidance when they needed it, it’s time to get down to doing the job that needs to be done for the good of everyone involved. Better late than never. No half measures. No more compromises. It’s reached a crisis point and it’s time to act.

It’s not just an anti-GOP platform that is needed. That’s what the Democrats have been counting on. Being better than a worse option is not good enough. A platform based on principles must be established and pursued. Not watered down and compromised. Single payer health care; access to an affordable quality education for all; an end to neo-colonialism and unjust foreign wars; the exclusion of corporate influence in politics and the end to corporate person-hood; policies that respect social, economic, and environmental justice; and the establishment of a fair, progressive system of taxation, rather than austerity measures. These are achievable goals.

It’s time to get down to work. If you’re prepared to do what needs to be done, and support the effort to bring about these needed changes, visit the October2011 campaign and offer your participation and/or support for the actions that have been planned.