[M]embers of what little there is of an American far left have long admired the Tea Party’s effectiveness, if not its goals...More at the Salon link.
Some pundits have argued that the rising popularity of Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren and New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio is proof that, even without a left-wing Tea Party, demographic changes are pushing the Democratic Party inexorably leftward. There’s no doubt at least a kernel of truth to this. But it’s important to keep in mind that there’s nothing new about unapologetically liberal politicians coming out of the Big Apple and the Bay State... Above all else, focusing on high-profile pols misses what makes the Tea Party so powerful: its ability to rally American conservatism’s activist troops...
As Ned Resnikoff recently wrote in the Baffler, if there’s to be a true left-wing Tea Party, it’ll have to be a bottom-up affair, one that is driven as much or more by longtime activists, issue-advocacy groups, organized labor and disaffected youth. It will have to be a movement, not a P.R. campaign. And as is the case with the Tea Party, it’ll have to derive much of its power and influence from hard work on the state and local levels, saving the more glamorous — but often less fruitful — work on Congress and the White House for last. As is the case for the real Tea Party, there would no doubt be politicians who seek to align themselves with the movement; but its real power players (at least at first) will have names you’ve never previously heard.
Photo: Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren, Bill de Blasio (Credit: AP/Susan Walsh/Reuters/Jonathan Ernst/AP/Jason DeCrow)
The TEA party started as a libertarian protest of big government and taxation that was feeding the beast during Bush the lesser's time in office that was co-opted by the Republican party so at it's roots in many matters a left leaning centrist like Elizabeth Warren has some things in common. And Yes I say Warren is left leaning as despite her rhetoric coming off leftist her actions have been centrist.
ReplyDeletebeen thinking more on the general topic. The left doesn't have a left-wing tea party because there are already many left leaning organizations operating for a multitude of causes that have been in place for decades. A lot of compromise and restructuring would be needed for a new left wing political movement in the U.S. to gain energy and support from the mostly centrist population.
DeleteThis makes no sense. The current Tea Party was conceived and funded by a handful of oligarchs, no matter how much the peons try to convince themselves it's a groundswell movement. And since the Democratic party is to the right of most countries' conservative parties, moving to the left would put them in a centrist position, not left-leaning at all.
ReplyDeleteExactly "right," Chris. Any degree however left of center is now interpreted for us as radical Bolshevism, while The Right Wing, radical, fundamentalist, lunatic fringe is rapidly approaching the new "normal."
DeleteYou're either wit us, or agin us...
I'd like to see a comparison of a good number of countries before stating our position is to the right relative to the rest of the world. A friend of mine just did a semester abroad in France; according to her, many of the parties there are far to the right of ours.
DeleteMost people moaning about Republicans and how right wing they are have no concept of what is actually lurking out on the fringes of the right far beyond conservatism, just like many liberals have no clue how wrong the far-left can go. U.S. politics is pretty darned stagnant and Republicans and Democrats have both floated to the middle making most of the noise both parties blat completely ridiculous. The TEA party was a phenomenon because something new was happening; dissent was coming from the middle and the right instead of the repeatedly familiar left.
DeleteThe Left saw a very (very) brief ground swell of power in the late '60s, very early '70s in the US (along with much of the reforms that Roosevelt initiated previously)- reforms that Conservatives fervently continue to chip away at. Not only are there many Americans completely oblivious and ignorant as to who to thank for things like Social Security and Medicare, they also seem to forget that we have things like: weekends, lunch hours, bathroom breaks and OT thanks to those dreadful, evil... unions; those organizations that Conservatives continue to blame for so many of our economic woes as corporations sent all our living wage, manufacturing jobs overseas while dumping their bloated, tax free profits in off shore banks.
DeleteSo the question remains, why do Americans so consistently vote against their own self interests? One reason is that higher education has become so expensive- and guess what side is leading the way towards eliminating public education of any kind. Inexpensive, quality education was what allowed the masses in the '60s to put two and two together to peek behind the curtains of power. Now much of the American public is walking about blind, the military has replaced affordable education, and they're scrambling for the remaining jobs that hardly cover rent, willing to blame their plight on whoever someone puts before them- and as usual, the darker, the better.
Yes, ultra right groups abound everywhere- fomenting fear of the "other' has had long roots in Europe.
One of the things about the Tea Party that I find most strange is that they seem to have convinced many of the poor and needy to vote against their own interests. I will never forget the old woman holding up a big sign that said, "Keep government out of my Medicare". If that doesn't demonstrate cognitive dissonance, I don't know what does.
ReplyDeleteMake that many of the White poor and needy. Appeal to their "darkest" fears and they will vote against their own self interests in lockstep...
DeleteI agree. This has always blown my mind and I consider it the biggest political victory of the Republican Party. Free market capitalism simply does not work for the vast majority of the people who are in lower socio-economic classes but they continue to vote in favor of it. In the end they are voting for lower wages and benefits for themselves deepening the pit of debt and subsistence wage earning.
DeleteWe don't have free market capitalism, never really did, hopefully never will. Republicans claiming we do have it or that they (as a party) actually support it are liars.
DeleteNah, the Left can't have a Tea Party. The Tea Party is maded up of two groups - the Manipulated and the Manipulators. The great majority are all knee-jerk people who think that having a kne-jerk reaction is actually mental activity, when all it is is emotinal reactin. And that group is played like a rented goalie by the Manipulators who tell the stupides (the Manipulatees) where to go aand what to say. The great majority of the Tea Party, thus, is a bunch of string puppets, doing their masters' bidding.
ReplyDeleteThe Left doesn't work taht way (though they do have their own forms of fear mongering). It is much more cerebral with the Left, at least in recent decades, and that may be their problem. I tried the Libertarian Party for a while but left because it was all too cerebral.
The Left blogs (HuffPo and DailyKos being the big players) are all about drying about things, but never doing anything. So there is no undercurrent of Get Out There And DO It. And there is no one pushing them to DO IT. And if someone TRIED to, there is simply too much diversity on the Left, too much individual thinking going on.
The Right prides itself on its Rugged Individualism while in reality they are all sheep being led to the slaughter. It is all self delusion - they have a core of church goers who are just following what the authority figure up at the mike tells them to do. Oh, they will get in your face and deny it with spittle flying, because you will have touched a nerve. But again - it's all emotion, no thinking. Just reaction, following orders and reaction. Yes, they have a few intelligent guys around too - those are the On-the-Spot Manipulators, to keep them hyperventilating over abortion or gays or blacks or Mexicans. Partly to keep them from getting a chance to think for themselves.
And the Left has no assertion of being individualistic, but they are at their cores people who think for themselves ALL THE TIME. It is the Left's multiple factions that makes them ineffective against the Right. The Right has people who get TALKING POINTS EVERY DAY, and the are willing to be parrots and puppets on behalf of what they think is their team - everybody on message, each day and every day. They think being used like that makes them bigger than they are, more important than they are - associating with some authoritarian message. But the Left can't do that. If someone sent them out Talking Points, 90% of them would bicker about what was sent. You can't have a Tea Party made up of people who think of themselves - they would butt heads all day and get nothing done - the Left is all chiefs and no Indians, as we used to say.
Basically, it's the Stupids that make the Tea Party - Berserkers without brains. Without the Stupids, the people at the top of that don't have any effectiveness. It was created to make the Stupids think that they thought of it themselves; that is the best form of manipulation, when you make them think they thought of it themselves. And once they do, oh, wow, you can get them to do anything - like shoot Congresswomen and kill Federal judges.
The Left has no one who will be dobermans for the cause. The Dummies on the Right - they champ at the bit to do that. The cause of the Left is too diverse, and too vague at any given time. The Right Manipulators keep it very simple - one-syllable words - just one-step instructions: "Go over there. When you get there, we will tell you what to do and say. Got it?" "Now carry those placards and repeat what is on them at the top of your lungs. Got it?" "If someone gets in your face, intimidate him or her. Got it?"
You try that with a Liberal and he will argue with you and tell you to go do it yourself.