We were once a nation of pioneers, then a nation of farmers, then builders and soldiers and scientists and statesmen. What are we today? A whole lot of landless peasants who’ve just not received the memo yet and the new royalty – a pack of non-productive grifters that we lack the moral fiber to investigate, prosecute, and punish.
Our world is changing; the illusion of man in control fostered by flight, satellites, and antibiotics is fading quickly. Mother Nature does not play. We face deadly peril and what must be done for us to have any hope at all is going to require men and women made of sterner stuff that the 111th Congress.
I think the Democrats are done. Are you ready for a Progressive party?
The comfortable Democratic vs. Republican party dynamic we’re caught up in is an artifact of the 20th century, no more functional than our far flung suburbs and park ranger style vehicles taking us to and fro.
There are really three ‘parties’ at work in America today: An irrational, superstitious, splinter of the former Republican party filled with neo-Confederates, religious fanatics, and other undesirables. They are, ideologically, closer to the Progressives than the rest. Think on that for a bit, because it’s how we lose.
The Republican leadership is still mostly neo-Liberal corporatists, as are the blue dogs. This is the problem – a corporation is an appropriate vehicle for gather capital in larger amounts and in far flung fashion that humans didn’t do until the fossil fuel age, but we failed to control it. This herd of soulless beasts has pretty much metastasized and our foolish Supreme Court recently gave them even greater influence. The labor union allowance is pablum without EFCA and in a world with dramatically declining employment opportunities I’m not sure how much power unions will actually wield.
At the opposite pole, at least in some ways, from the superstitious natives of the neo-Confederate party, are the Progressive. Science, not superstition. Facts over faith. The two couldn’t be any more different ... except that they’re human movements that will run out of a time, space, and energy in the face of the Corporate party, losing all, unless they can find some common cause.
What is a sensible common cause for two groups that seem poised to come to blows?
A constitutional amendment striking down the 1866 Santa Clara County v. Southern Pacific Railroad decision that provided corporate personhood in the first place.
The Libertarians, both with and without a capital "L" will bite immediately. The Obama is taking over crowd is hard to judge – they’ll jump whatever direction Glenn Beck happens to point. The Progressives will see the value immediately.
The question is whether or not the Libertarians will make common cause with Progressives, and what might happen with the massive demographic of soon to be discarded workers. My view is that the United States, such as it is today, probably won’t survive intact; empires get messy when they come apart and ours will be no different. Something is going to happen when the reality of what Wall Street has done becomes readily apparent to all
We can capture the simmering rage of that cohort of newly dispossessed with a vision of a vision of the future that has them with a place to live, something to eat, a recognizable quality of life, and the Corporate party as the object of their wrath. If this is left to the right, we’ll get a Jesus Jihad.
I think Progressives can be the needed catalyst for change; the 21% already on the far right are doing everything in their power to alienate the other four of every five Americans with boorish, violent behavior.
Something has to be done to get ‘under’ the religious members of that cohort and I have a suggestion:
"Neither shall you bear false witness against your neighbor."
Every day in a thousand ways the Corporate party’s media arm violates the 8th commandment. This is simply and easily demonstrated. Who on the right will speak against such behavior? Already we see the Evangelical Lutheran Church of America permitting gay marriage and there are Christian groups who are focused on stewardship of the Earth. Someone must be ready to make this move – Progressives need to understand as a group the difference between someone who identifies as a Christian and Christian Identify. Abortion and universal health care will be a rub and on this point I concede the floor – what do we do about it?
There really doesn’t seem to be any other path forward. No matter how squeaky clean our new Democratic Congressman may be once he (or she) has spent two years in D.C. they’re like a rubber duck that’s been floated in a sewage lagoon. The pernicious influence of lobbyist dollars sully every plan with any merit unto the point where the ‘legislative sausage’ is 75% fecal matter by volume. And don’t even get me started about the failings of our SenateWHORES.
We can’t roll a Progressive party candidate yet, but we can put Progressive House members into seats, then stand over them, a bunch of carrots in one hand and a well hidden stick in the other. We’re going to have to give back Senate seats currently held by ineffective Democrats *cough* Harry Reid cough as we take out vulnerable Republicans.
This is going to be a long, drawn out fight, and it’s going to happen against the humiliating backdrop of a dying empire. Or we can remain ... a nation of grifters.