The biggest failure of the Left is not understanding politics.
Politics is a rock concert, not a seminar.
I’m not talking about the “political system”. I’m talking about the realities of attempting a constructive dialogue with 319 million people.
The political system requires a thoughtful, analytical, patient, usually plodding “process” to accomplish anything of substance and lasting value. This is how it is, and how should be, recognizing the importance of law and the framework it creates for a functioning society.
Having said that . . .
It’s unrealistic to expect everyday citizens to begin to understand the arcane particulars of fashioning laws, much less participate in the tedious business of debate, negotiation and compromise in the committees and on the floors of legislative bodies. People barely have time to cook their meals and make it to work on time, much less pore over congressional studies and the notes of sub-committee meetings, watch monotonous hours of C-Span, or read the informed analysis of issue experts.
Maybe this is the intrinsic flaw in the whole idea of democracy, but that’s an entirely other discussion.
The point is, people cheer for their favorite causes the way the cheer for their favorite sports teams — or remaining true to the metaphor of this particular piece — their favorite songs.
The truth is — for better or worse — this makes it pretty easy to govern.
If you play a song people hate, or sing out of tune, they will boo and threaten to storm the stage and tear you to shreds. If you play what they like and perform it well, they’ll cheer, dance, revere you like a god, and go home happy.
I know this sounds simplistic. And, of course, it’s casually brushes aside differences in taste. Some will love Katy Perry, others think Deerhunter is the ultimate.
But I’m making a simple point. If the Left would try “tuning in” to people, immediately stop condemning the public for being so dumbed-down and apathetic — snidely looking down their noses at Mr. and Ms. Everyday American for not wanting to sit through a four-hour Chomsky seminar — then actually play some music the voting public wants to hear, maybe some of its messages — many critical to the survival of the human race — would actually get heard.
You could argue that this is what Bernie Sanders is managing to do.
Unfortunately, it’s also what Donald Trump is doing.
But realistically both have mere cult followings, neither approaching universal appeal. Trump scores with the Ted Nugent fans. Bernie has got the Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young crowd locked down.
Both have certainly tapped into a hungry void. Someone needs to sing the songs the vast majority of Americans want to hear. Perhaps more than ever before in recent history, there is an urgent need for music which will raise our hopes and inspire new dreams.
But the way things stand, there are still a huge number of folks who have no song to hum.
I believe people know what they want. But they can’t write the tunes themselves. They hear what’s being played, listen for a catchy melody, a singable chorus, an infectious beat. They take it from there.
None of the candidates so far have come up with a true hit.
Does this characterization trivialize politics?
It doesn’t have to. It simply means that there is a lesson here.
The challenge is offering an honest, heartfelt, engaging, entertaining message, which is true to both the spirit and the content that drives that message, and one which people not only want to hear, but will be “singing” themselves — because it genuinely resonates with them.
For the right wing of this country, this is apparently easy. While what they say makes me as a progressive shudder and recoil in horror, I have to hand it to them. They know how to put it out there and get their deluded, misguided, parochial flock of lemmings excited!
The Left — and I’m not talking about the “sold out” Democrats or Starbucks liberals who for all intents and purposes form the willfully ignorant center of the political spectrum — just can’t seem to get it together.
For many progressives, especially progressive academics and pundits, the devil is so entirely in the details, nuance and caveat reign supreme, and tragically the message gets lost. The “big ideas” might be out there, but they’re buried in a blizzard of abstractions, qualifiers, minutiae, pros-and-cons, excuses and rationalizations, the truly annoying and pathetic preemptive defenses, deflections, even counter and counter-counter arguments.
You know . . . the old forest and trees myopia.
Where am I going with this?
I’ll offer one simple example.
Remember the John Lennon song Happy Xmas (War Is Over)? The end of the song features a vamp with a huge chorus singing:
…………. War is over if you want it! ………….
Sound naive? Stupid? Wacky? Impossible?
All we have now is war, morning, noon and night . . . 24/7/365. War is like oxygen!
But the simple truth is, we — that is, you and I — could put an end to it, at least put an end to our aggressive, destructive military misadventures. We could stop the slaughter of tens of thousands of people and the promotion of even more anti-American terrorism. You and I could stop the militarization of our nation and the world precipitated by the profiteering and insatiable greed of the corporate military-industrial complex.
The method is actually quite straightforward.
The message is simple and clear.
Spend some time with this and see for yourself . . .
http://peacedividend.us
War and fear and militarization and national bankruptcy are over.
. . . if you want it.
Have you heard this tune from any of the candidates?
Have you even heard it from the Left, the progressive intelligentsia, many of whom say you should just look the other way on Bernie Sanders’ longstanding support for militarization, his active promotion of unnecessary military expenditures, his declared endorsement of drone warfare, his votes for the surveillance state, his condemnation of Edward Snowden, his appalling knee-jerk approval of Israeli apartheid and brutal military oppression of Palestinians?
Why not?
War and fear and militarization and national bankruptcy are over if we want it.
It’s simple, catchy. Has a nice sound to it. Good beat.
Why don’t we ever hear this song?
You might ask one of the “progressives” at your next Chomsky seminar.
Choose A Symptom, Ignore The Disease
Willful ignorance, cognitive dissonance, reductive rationalization, diversion or delusion — call your suicide pact Kool Aid whatever you want — has little sway with the Grim Reaper. Just ask Steve Jobs. He thought he could beat the Big C. He was dead wrong.
America made its bargain with unspeakable Evil and now is afflicted with the cancer of its own corruption and self-sabotaging choices.
To avoid the pain, it has euthanized its democracy.
To avoid thinking about extinction, it has embraced fantasy, magic, demagoguery.
To avoid the humiliation of moral bankruptcy, it has exalted profit over people.
To mask its treachery, it wraps itself in the flag, thumps on the Bible, and proclaims: “You’re either with us or against us.” Anyone who doesn’t fall in line is carted off to a for-profit prison.
To keep the sheeple giddy as we sashay to slaughter, it now promotes puerile pandering, grandstanding and simpleminded showmanship over a principled, thoughtful, honest and constructive national conversation.
Thus . . .
Elections have become a circus. The center ring is reserved for the ones with the shiniest teeth-whitened smiles, biggest megaphones, and most dazzling tricks.
It’s all so very entertaining, eh? What will Donald Trump say next? Ha ha ha!
America has hollowed itself out from the inside. As is embarrassingly and frighteningly evident from the current presidential campaign, the political system can now only collapse into its own vacuousness — the black hole of a sham democracy.
Trump, Cruz, Clinton, Sanders? They’re symptomatic of the times. The inflammation. The nausea. The diarrhea. The vomiting. They’re the struggling, heaving, gasping of a deathly ill body politic, telling us something’s very wrong. Quick! Call an ambulance! Vital signs are fast disappearing!
So I say . . .
Don’t yell at Hillary. Or Trump. It’s like yelling at a stuffy nose. Or a rash.
They’re just symptoms. It’s a waste if time.
We need to get to the root of the problem.
“What’s the disease? Cancer you say?”
Cancer is not a simple pathology. It’s complex and multi-pronged — which, of course, is why it so stubbornly resists a comprehensive and enduring cure.
The form of cancer which is destroying our nation is a like self-replicating Hydra which has metastasized throughout the entire infrastructure of our economy, ravaged the entire political system, leeched the media of any integrity and efficacy; it has polluted even the basic support systems of our churches and community organizations; it has completely poisoned the collective consciousness of our citizenry.
This brazen and aggressive malignancy feeds on:
1) Unchecked imperial ambitions.
2) Exceptionalist hubris and arrogance.
3) The crushing power of corporations.
4) The militarization of everything.
5) Plutocratic tyranny and greed.
Trump? Clinton? Cruz? Sanders?
Choose your symptom. As if it makes a difference.
Each has his or her own special twist. A plausible version of reality.
Adult fairy tales. Bedtime stories. Go to sleep now. Dream the American Dream.
At the same time . . .
If we listen very carefully to them, as tedious and exasperating as that often is — with their carefully-crafted rhetoric, focus-group tried-and-tested talking points, slick sound bites, patriotic pandering, tongue-wagging, finger-pointing, massaging and masking of the truth, manipulation of public perception, their smooth seductions and patronizing provocations — we do indeed see what the real problem is. It’s right there staring back at us through the rheumy, half-closed eyes of a patient on life-support, whispered, but still audible, in the phlegmy rhythm of an incipient death rattle.
Our country is very, very sick.
And yes, I include Sanders as a symptom. Here is a decent human being who is being vilified as an extremist and a socialist nutcase because he promotes such controversial ideas as: Every person has a right to a living wage, and every citizen should get proper, affordable health care. Isn’t that an obvious sign that the central nervous system of America is being ravaged by some malignant flesh-eating bacteria?
None of these candidates will talk about the disease itself.
Because none of them has a cure.
There’s only one cure.
Us. That’s right . . .
You and I.