``..But we have no hope, no prospects, no ideas, and no ability. Ultimately I think that the logjam will break, and people will organize something independent both of the Dems and we fossils -- either that or we are doomed..''jks
-------
While all that might be true, you've forgotten other things that do have a positive dimension. I can't put them together as a political program, but they are there.
Like what?
The underclass, the vast collection of black, hispanic, asian and working class whites mingled between them that constitute most of the bottom of the work force---and importantly most of the younger work force. This is a growing demographic at least here, and they are mostly democrats with a grudge. They don't have the same grudges we (older white educated middleclass left have), but there are, I am not sure what to call it, resonances, concordance, something like that. The single biggest difference between us (me and them) is most of them still believe in the American dream, still believe that if prejudice and discrimination was gotten over, and there was just a little money help with education, jobs, housing, they could make it. They haven't made the leap into understanding they are were they are because the system is specifically design to keep them just at the threshold---so they will work for less, but keep working.
There is a stark difference between who I see on the street and on the job, and who I see on tv in political office and talking about issues. The overwhelming majority holding political office are old white men, and that is just not a reflection of the world I see and live in, period.
There is a whole new generation of kids, mostly racially mixed, ethnically diverse, economically lower middle class-working class who are at the cusp of political awareness. They are not going to get that great job in Silicon Valley and be rich. They are headed for marginal work lives and they know it. They are going to struggle at state and city colleges and they don't like their prospects. They are treading water and that can not last. Many have openly gay or lesbian friends and they all are for full rights, affirmative action, higher taxes on the rich, anti-military, anti-gun, anti-drugs, anti-war and so forth. They are headed left and don't know it.
How can I put this?
All of these things are pressures that don't naturally move right. They move left. That is not because there is any great leftist program to latch on to. There isn't. It is just that there is no alternative.
That may not be hope in any immediate political sense, but it sure isn't doom. We've been locked in a log jam with the Right for thirty years. That jam will break and it will be broken by a different kind of people than most of the media and political establishment are used to seeing. So, I agree on that part.
But then there is Iraq. Iraq is grinding its way toward a US defeat of devastating proportion. The hysterical support that GWB and crew are deploying is doomed. There is just no way out but bad. That's where the sense of doom is coming from.
CG