The Progressive Perspective:
Looking back, looking forward—why I am liberal
By: David J. Carrier,
When Americans elected Barack Obama last November, it was with the hope that he could bring the change needed to correct the course of American politics and policies. While there have been well-received changes to the way President Obama and his administration conduct foreign policy, not enough is being done on either the domestic or international fronts. Much of the responsibility for this must fall on congress and the disturbing incompetence of both the Democratic and Republican leadership, but President Obama must do more to uphold liberal ideals and address the domestic issues facing our neighbors at home or our brothers and sisters abroad.
Almost exactly one year ago, Postville endured what was then the largest raid on undocumented immigrants in American history, tearing apart families and shattering the dreams of many who traveled thousands of miles to make a home in northeastern Iowa. While this column is not the appropriate medium for a full-fledged debate about immigration reform, there is one fact that cannot be denied – immigration laws in the United States must be reformed.
We can no longer impart the devastating effects of large-scale raids on immigrants and the communities they support both culturally and financially. Congress must streamline the immigration process while securing American borders from the flow of illegal drugs. In addition, Congress must create a path to citizenship that allows families to remain together and allows all immigrants who are already in the United States to contribute openly to our communities.
After World War II the world claimed that never again would we allow genocide to take place. Then in the early 1990’s, President Clinton and the world balked at the mass slaughter of possibly one million men, women and children – a decision that Bill Clinton calls his greatest regret. Once more the world said, “Never again,†and yet we have allowed the conflict in Darfur to persist since 2003. Six years later, it is estimated that as many as 450,000 people have been killed, and 2,700,000 people have been displaced. How can we sit idly by while children are forced to watch their mothers and siblings repeatedly raped and their fathers brutally murdered? When babies die in refugee camps their mothers carry them around for days because they cannot put them down. This continues to happen, on this earth, on our watch.
I am unashamed to consider myself liberal. Many conservatives try to frame “liberal†as negative, but it was liberals who fought for a woman’s right to vote, passed civil rights legislation, passed the Clean Water Act and Violence Against Women Act, established Medicare and Social Security and fight for the rights of every individual to marry. Conservatives have opposed each of these essential social, civic and political advances, so which ideology would you choose if you were able to decide before you knew your race, gender, sexual orientation or tax bracket? I wear the label “liberal†proudly and strongly urge President Obama to do the same – for the people of Darfur, the uninsured child in Pennsylvania and the families whose lives have been torn apart because they sought a better life, and they sought it here.
The Trouble with "Progressives"
So-called 'progressives' are people who began calling themselves 'progressive' when they found themselves lacking both the courage and the moral authority to argue with right-wing cranks who made 'liberal' an epithet. Mr. Carrier's essay illustrates the problem perfectly. Of America's current situation, Carrier asserts: "Much of the responsibility for this must fall on congress and the disturbing incompetence of both the Democratic and Republican leadership, but President Obama must do more to uphold liberal ideals and address the domestic issues facing our neighbors at home or our brothers and sisters abroad."
Truth is that ALL of the blame for what's wrong in Washington falls on Congress. Congressional leadership, both Democratic and Republican is not incompetent but is rather entirely and hopelessly dishonest. On the so-called 'progressive' side of the aisle, Democrats were complicit in most of the felonies perpetrated by the Bush/Cheney Crime Syndicate. Outrages such as the Iraq War, the USA Patriot Act and the Military Commissions Act, for example, went forward with the knowing acquiescence of congressional Democrats. Now that Democrats have the power, they still refuse to prosecute members of the Bush crime family and insist, instead, that "forgiveness" is the order of the day. Thanks to 'progressive' Democrats such as Sen. Patrick Leahy and Rep. Robert Wexler, we have a two-tiered justice system in America: Common criminals are arrested, charged, prosecuted, and sent to prison. Influential criminals are asked (not ordered) to confess their crimes, warned to change their behavior, and sent to bed without supper.
Truth is that in the teeth of the situation in Washington, 'progressives' like Carrier want Uncle Sam to intervene in Darfur rather than clean house in D.C. Seems Carrier's logic is that if you've got a headache, you should go to the other side of town, find some bum on a park bench, and smash his toe with a hammer. Carrier wants a government that cannot govern itself to intervene militarily and govern a nation on the other side of the world. Carrier believes that taxpayers being systematically cheated by the corrupt relationship between Uncle Sam and Wall Street should stand tall and fork over the additional dough to fund yet ANOTHER bogus crusade on the other side of the world.
It's Democrats like Carrier who helped Republicans make 'liberal' a dirty word. Dishonest with themselves about the nature of the world, they cannot see the need to clean up their own party and, in the process, enact urgently needed reforms in Washington, D.C. It's Democrats like Carrier who keep guys like me (I used to vote Democrat) voting third-party or not voting at all. It's Democrats like Carrier who will ultimately cost Democracy the congressional majority that the party currently enjoys. It is Democrats like Carrier who will, when the lid finally comes off here at home, band together with their Republican buddies and insist that protesters be tasered and gassed and shot in the streets.
Thus I say that Democrats like Carrier, who call themselves 'progressive,' are entirely full of nasty brown Donkey stuffing. 'Reagan Republicans' were not wrong to desert the Democratic Party: they were mistaken only in assuming that the Republicans would treat them better. Carrier and his 'progressives' are at this moment working furiously to prove that nothing has changed.
Jimmy Montague
http://thecyanidehole.blogspot.com
cyanidehole@gmail.com