Beyond the Fringe

A few months back, I dropped out of the Healdsburg Peace Project. I did this reluctantly, because I like the members. The Project began about 13 years ago, a hundred people strong. Over the years the more astute members died or moved away or just quit, leaving behind good people whose belief systems were inconsistent with reality. Eventually I had to go, too. And that raises a question. Why does the Left have so little impact on American politics today? 

The first robber-baron era in the United States drew a vigorous response from ordinary people, who organized themselves into several movements that culminated in the New Deal. We are now deep into the second robber-baron era, triggered by the Reagan Revolution. This time the middle class and poor have no unity, no agenda, no plan, no Farmer-Labor Party, no New Deal. We face huge issues: poverty, climate change, racism, nuclear threats, our own dominant weapons industry and fluoridated water. You may wonder why fluoridated water is on the list. So do I.  

In the face of all this, the general public remains passive; and the Far Left in my area seems committed to an angry early-20th-century struggle to repeal western civilization, siding with the John Birch Society, the wine barons and local teabaggers in revolt against the world as it is. 

The actual work of trying to help actual people has been left to religious charities and the liberal wing of the Democratic Party. They help a little here and a little there--but they, too, have no plan. The Republicans, these days, offer Wall Street and fundamentalist forms of oppression. What we need are movements that ordinary people will trust and a positive plan that makes sense to the average voter. 

If the Left wants to gain trust, here's a suggestion. Do something useful like gathering and delivering food to hungry people. They might then sit and talk. A plan might emerge.