>It is about fear, as in the panicky response to 9/11. You can make the case
>that all great progressive change as well as reaction has been the result of
>fear - in such cases, the fear of suffering and death from hunger or war or
>both.
But the left used to be about hope, optimism, the future. Now many of us are backward looking, romanticizing peasant agriculture or the horny-handed working class of old, quaking with terror over the risks of biotech, secretly or not so secretly rooting for an economic meltdown. It's a tough package to sell. At least the Christian right has eternal salvation on offer.
Doug