“More liberals need to acknowledge that Richard Nixon won—twice—and push for an updated strategy. They should stop using the following clichés when speaking or writing: The people. Progressive. Shame. Social justice. The world is watching. They should pay less attention to movies by self-serving millionaire Michael Moore and books by self-serving millionaire Noam Chomsky. They should stop supporting third-party presidential candidates—who have never been elected in this country, not even during the Great Depression.” – Ben Easher
Maine Governor Paul LePage recently ordered a labor history mural removed from the state’s Department of Labor headquarters. This incident showed just how ineffectual liberal activism has become in this country. While idealists settle for short-lived symbolic victories like the mural—or the World Trade Organization shutdown of 1999—reactionary Tea Parties help elect politicians like LePage. Even though the Democrats controlled the White House and legislature from early 2009 to early 2011, party “moderates” joined with Republicans and corporate lobbyists to prevent major reform of health care, finance, and foreign policy.
Appeals to altruism fall short with the American public because self-interest is a large part of the national culture. Tax protesters helped bring about the Revolutionary War, and most Americans to this day are unwilling to accept European or Canadian levels of taxation. Besides, those countries have populations equivalent to a single American state, meaning that a larger and more expensive bureaucracy would be needed to administer similar social programs here.
Although the Tea Parties have billionaire supporters—including the Koch brothers and Rupert Murdoch—the Right has taken over populism by successfully labeling the Left as elitist. This stereotype isn’t completely wrong: academic utopianism and New Age consciousness mostly appeal to urban middle-class whites.
More liberals need to acknowledge that Richard Nixon won—twice—and push for an updated strategy. They should stop using the following clichés when speaking or writing: The people. Progressive. Shame. Social justice. The world is watching. They should pay less attention to movies by self-serving millionaire Michael Moore and books by self-serving millionaire Noam Chomsky. They should stop supporting third-party presidential candidates—who have never been elected in this country, not even during the Great Depression.
Changing strategy doesn’t mean becoming Republican Lite and trying to please everyone, as Bill Clinton and Barack Obama have done. Most Fox News cult members won’t be swayed by any message besides what they already “know.” What really matters is swing voters, who went Democratic in 2008 not as an endorsement of liberal idealism, but as a reaction to the Bush administration’s incompetence. By 2010, they were ready to “throw the bums out” again.
The details of a new liberal strategy are better left to experts, but generally it should acknowledge individualism and the need for limits on corporate power, and involve less whimpering about “hurtful remarks” made by Republicans and more pressure on Democrats to refuse large campaign donations.
Anyone who laughs at the possibility of Sarah Palin becoming president in 2013 should remember who had the last laugh in 1981 and 2001, and stop being part of the joke.
– Ben Easher
