I'm always amused by popular references to the allegedly all-powerful American "Left." The term suggests that progressives today possess the same kind of robust, ideologically driven political apparatus as the Right — a machine putting principles before party affiliation.
This notion is hilarious because it is so absurd.
Yes, there are certainly well-funded groups in Washington that call themselves "progressive," that get media billing as "The Left," and that purport to advocate liberal causes regardless of party. But unlike the Right's network, which has sometimes ideologically opposed Republicans on court nominations and legislation, many "progressive" institutions are not principled at all — sadly, lots of them are just propagandists for Democrats, regardless of what Democrats do.
Laying Bare the Myth of "The Left"
Readers of this blog may recognize this theme. Progressive pundits and organizations are as compromised as the politicians they support.
We are now confronted with a Democratic Party that clearly supports unilateral grabs for executive power that include the power to kill, watch, or imprison American citizens without trial or hearing, won't stop the country's large financial firms from destroying the economy for their own gain, and will clearly do nothing of use to guarantee that Americans have health care. The silence on these issues from progressive organizations has been deafening.
As long as progressives are willing to settle for this, it will continue. Anyone stupid enough to send his money to these organizations, or credulously trusts what they say, deserves the government he's getting.
4 comments:
Off Topic but may be interesting:
Al Jazeera has a piece on a Robert Fisk speech that is insightful:
http://english.aljazeera.net/focus/2010/05/201052574726865274.html
just in case it was missed or overlooked.
Yeah, I was surprised, although anymore I do not know why, about the amount of money being "given" to ecological groups by oil, etc.
Every time something like that happens I am amazed all over again.
Interesting quote, Expat. I hope to have a bit more to say later, but for anyone who reads Glenn Greenwald, the idea that journalistic language has been used to obfuscate things that are embarrassing to people in power should be very familiar.
The oil companies have so much money these days, lawguy, that I'm amazed to find people in DC who don't act like they're owned by them.
FWIW there is a book out (2006) by Steven Poole "UNSPEAK™, unspeak 1. n. mode of speech that persuades by stealth. E.g., climate change, war on terror, ethnic cleansing, road map." with ISBN 0-316-73100-5 (Little Brown) that is exceptional in its analysis and diagnosis of what passes as "framing" in greater depth and detail. This book will open eyes still; no library should be without a copy. (apologies if tags are amiss on title).
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