Give up, there's no point, the people are beyond anyone's reach - except the right's.
Give up, there's no point, the number of unionists, hippies, environmentalists, feminists, gay rights activists, liberal Christians, post-Panther blacks, UFW-inspired latinos, punk-inspired alts, anti-War protesters, South Africa disinvesture promoters, advocates for health care reform, vegans and disaffected folks of the last 40 years mean nothing - they are an utter and complete minority, they are irretrievably lost, they're all evangelicals, self-hating, bought or disaffected now.
The myth of small government has NOT dominated American history, nor has the idea that all politicians are corrupt, the separation of powers is not in and of itself conservative and - when I was growing up in the 60s and 70s - huge swaths of the middle class knew that their upward mobility and living conditions were tied to unions, federal legislation and things like the GI Bill, etc.
The power of the Wall Street vs. Main Street discourse couldn't possibly be turned leftwards, not a chance... there is absolutely no sense among the American public that the advancement of corporate interests hurts ours, is there? Hell, there's not a community in the US that sees anything contradictory in that Walmart on its outskirts. Not a single person in Michigan, or Wisconsin, or Ohio, or California, or New Jersey, or Florida who lost their job has any sense whatsoever that the cause was anything other than their own incompetence 'cuz that vast majority of them believe in the invisible hand invariably producing the greatest good for the greatest number. No one who was sent to Iraq or Afghanistan could possibly have anything critical - from the left - to say about US foreign policy.
There's not a single person who listens to country music who understands "Take This Job and Shove It," because all of them love their bosses. Nobody identified with Nine to Five when it came out, 'cuz no one could figure out what those chicks were bent out of shape about. Clerks? Utterly confusing movie to Americans. The Informant, nobody got it. Up in the Air? Fail.
And nobody, anywhere, has understood a single thing - no matter how the left sees them - can figure out what the heck Michael Moore is talking about! The man and his movies are totally opaque. No potential here everyone, keep on moving. None of the resistance to the use of eminent domain for private interests could be turned leftward, not a chance.
There's not a single person aware of how valuable public education is, not one... and there's not a population in the country who thinks highly of THEIR teachers. And there is absolutely zero chance that anyone could turn the discourse on the family - much less that of individual freedom - leftward (at least, I've never seen it done with any effect whatsoever by any sociologist or leftist in print [except the hundreds I read].)
None of the polls indicating large swaths of the US population having positive feelings about socialism at the height of this latest recession indicates anything other than the fact that this is inherently a center-right country.
Let me get this right, from your last paragraph it seems to me that your argument is the following: If we can't turn them leftward with little or not sustained work, then the whole project is a useless waste of time to even consider. If that's where you are, why are you here?
On Sat, Apr 30, 2011 at 3:25 PM, Somebody Somebody <philos_case at yahoo.com>wrote:
> Alan Rudy: But I simultaneously think it is equally imperative never to
> underestimate the public's commitment to an utterly indeterminate populism.
> I think it is politically contradictory to accept that the American public
> is anything but contradictory in its social, political, economic and
> cultural commitments.
>
> Somebody: That's fine, but even if it's an indeterminate populism it seems
> unlikely that it does not have more of a coloration of right or left, on
> balance. Given that most of the major American myths are more supportive of
> a conservative populism, I think Wojtek has a point.
>
> Here's a few examples: the myth of small government, politicians are all
> corrupt (but there is no analogous myth about businessmen), the free market,
> separation of powers, individual responsibility, upward mobility..
>
> On the other hand, you'd struggle to come up with myths that are more
> compatible with left-wing politics. Do we have ingrained notions of
> solidarity, of resisting the bosses, or a tendency to blame capitalism for
> economic downturns or CEO's for unemployment? Certainly not. You can't blame
> this all on the force of ruling class ideology. In other places and other
> times the ruled classes have had their own countervailing ideologies.
> Outside of Wisconsin labor protests and maybe The Nation subscriber list, we
> do not.
>
> Incidentally, I cannot help but note that your argument against American
> conservatism is to note that most people could potentially be rallied on
> behalf of Medicare and Social Security. But could they easily be roused to
> support single-payer or free college education? I doubt it. Americans are,
> on average, constitutionally conservative in an inchoate way, so their
> support for existing programs is not so surprising. I don't see them
> supporting an expansion of social democracy.
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>
-- ********************************************************* Alan P. Rudy Dept. Sociology, Anthropology and Social Work Central Michigan University 124 Anspach Hall Mt Pleasant, MI 48858 517-881-6319