On the way home from work today, I was thinking about how the extreme right-wing has basically come to dominate our government and set policy, even with a Democrat in the White House and with a Democratically-controlled Senate; that story dovetails nicely with the argument that Adolph Reed, Jr. makes in the snippet of the article featured on the front page, regarding the left's seemingly near-absolute lack of clout in this nation.
What got me thinking today was a Kansas City Star article mentioning how some Tea Party PAC was throwing its support behind the right-wing freak challenging Senator Pat Roberts in the GOP primary this year. Upon seeing that headline, a few thoughts went through my head: at first, I was thinking "what, Pat freaking Roberts isn't conservative enough for you goddam people?" Then I kind of chuckled at the idea that this Tea Party group was just wasting money trying to beat Roberts, who likely will cruise to victory. But upon reflecting on this Tea Party group's motives for a minute, it occurred to me that they really aren't wasting money and, when it gets right down to it, they don't give a damn whether they win or lose--if they win, that's great, but their real motivation in backing this wingnut longshot is to pull Roberts to the right, which has undeniably happened.
I keep going back and forth over whether it is the big-money, outside groups that are pushing this relentless movement to the right by the Republican Party, or whether the energy really is coming from their insane, loathsome, detestable base. In the end, it doesn't really matter because both groups are getting what they want from these primary challenges: a radical right-wing Republican Party.
Here is my question: where are our left-wing challengers to shitty Democrats? When are we going to start pulling our party from the centrist vortex that it is being inextricably drawn into? Why is there seemingly zero impetus on the left to challenge our "representatives" in government and the Democratic Party to live up to our ideals? How does the Democratic Party keep getting away with moving ever rightward, ever rightward?
Reed makes a great point, or at least hints at it: what the hell do we, the left, actually stand for? Is our only raison d'etre merely to be "not Republicans?" What a sorry, depressing standard if that really is the sum of our beliefs and activism, which is reflected in the seemingly inexorable movement of the governance in this country to the right (even as significant majorities of people tell pollsters that they support liberal policy positions). I am SICK AND FUCKING TIRED of the right-wing always driving the political discussion in this country. I am SICK AND FUCKING TIRED of hearing on the news of the latest radical right-wing proposal becoming law in some godforsaken red state like Kansas, while hearing no comparable left-wing initiatives seemingly ever emerging in blue states. I would love to see the Democratic Party embrace a new left-wing economic and cultural populism to counterbalance the craziness coming from the right-wing areas of this country, but sadly it seems as though our elected Democratic "betters" are either too lazy, too afraid, or simply too complicit to do any better than their meager current offerings. Or perhaps my expectations for the Democratic Party are sadly and significantly out of step with reality.
