> I am part of any sort of 'we' with such people at all.
sorry you missed it. again. "we" were talking about how "we" have to survive on a daily basis among people who think "we" are traitors to them and our country. "we" have to listen to parents, siblings, friends, lovers, neighbors, and students who dislike us for our views. i'm not on speaking terms with my mother these days--a not unusual story for many of us. to be around my father isn't so bad--because i can do no wrong!--but around my step-mother, a true blue southerner! gak!
in that context, "we" need to think about how "we"--the US left--portray ourselves. at least i need to think about how i portray myself when i'm going about my daily life, often being asked what i think about what's going on. i'm after all, the resident lefty. when people ask, it is often because they are dissatisfied with what is currently going on. and it's there, that crack, that i happen to think we have a chance. you and others dismiss this perhaps. i do not and can not because, if it weren't for people who did the same for me, i wouldn't be here right now. i'd be slaving away in a hot kitchen, breaking my back for $11/hr, stultified by a daily grind that leaves little room for the life of the mind and crushes anyone who even thinks "unionize".
how do we represent a lefty argument to those people above, to the media, to (fill in the blank), to the people who were once like me--in need of a way of looking at the world that was more satisfying to our lived reality, even if that way of seeing the world was sometimes terribly painful? how do we show them, the people who might be on our side if given half a chance--what a viable left position looks like in these circumstances? how do we educate others about the history of US imperialism so that they don't dismiss us out of hand. what answers do "we" give so that people will listen to us instead of laugh, mock, snicker, scream, grimace in disgust. "we" want to continue the activism we pursued previously, and we want to be able to do so with a modicum of respect from those people.
maybe these things don't matter to you, but they matter to me--because those are the circumstances of my daily life--and they matter for they determine the richness and variety of people i share that life with.
kelley