A month ago, on November 8th, the clouds broke over America and the rest of the world too. Hope shined through. The train wreck that looked like it was hurtling towards the end of democracy was stopped.
The right wing mentality and mindset was rejected by a strong majority of Americans, leaving the Reublican party with nothing but it's limp, faded, tired talking points of tax avoidance (which most now see as wealthy parasites living off the poor and the middle class,) Fear (which most now see as a ridiculous emphasis on terrorism, since the right has performed so badly in Iraq,) and hate, intolerance and xenophobia in the form of anti-gay, anti-immigrant mean-spirited activism.
Right wing radio could be dying as it's idiot talking bobbleheads have been proven by the elections and the Iraq Study Report to be totally wrong.
The centrist DLC/ Hilary dumbocrats/republicrats and the Republicans are trying to spin the elections as a win for moderates. That is bullshit. It is a loss for right wing extremists, as the middle and the independents, the Latinos, Catholics and even Protestant Evangelicals left them in droves, moving to the left. TO THE LEFT.
What the Left and Al Qaeda have in common. The left is stronger than it has ever been. Part of the reason is it has so much new blood. In one way they have one thing in common with Al Qaeda. Both the American Left and Al Qaeda have been helped massively, in recruiting, by George Dubya Bush. Bush helped Al Qaeda by engaging in his Iraq idiocy. He helped the left by stealing two presidential elections, thereby awakening millions of previously non-political Americans to become activists.
Among these activists are some grizzled former peace protesters, supports of Abu Jamal Mumia, and Palestinian rights. There are a handful of socialists and communists, no doubt. But the vast majority of the new progressive base that is growing, that was essential to enabling the Dems, sans vertebrae, to win congress, was a new populist progressive movement that in most ways is very centrist. They are not right leaning DLC-type centrists. They support responsible government, healthcare for all, fair, living wages for Americans, decent treatment of prisoners, protection of democracy, the constitution and human rights, placing humans above corporations, protection of workers, the environment, US industries over global interests of a few hundred megacorporations.
These progressives are not extremists, not far left. They may not even be as far left as people who identify themselves as liberals. But they have become activists and energized and fully awake and they know what they want.
In a few weeks they will be watching closely. They will be watching how the Democratic run congress doees it's job. They know how politicians lie, spin and bullshit and they will see through it and absolutely not tolerate it.
The media is going to have to clean up its act too. Already we are seeing some signs that the mainstream media has smelled the coffee. The dems must do more, strategically and systematically to demand that the media do their job. That doesn't mean lean left. It means ask tough questions and not lean right.
Bush is like a pathetic character in a novel. He is also dangerous and must be neutralized. That will cme to pass if the congress does its job.
The clouds have broken. THe sun is shinging through. The rightwing rats are digging into their holes in the ground. Democracy and human rights are rising. We have work to do, ugly legislation to overturn, like the MCA act that wiped out habeus corpus and the bankruptcy act that handed gifts to the credit card banking industry-- the one that gave more money to republicans than any other.
We have a lot to be thankful for and to celebrate.
Rob Kall is executive editor and publisher of OpEdNews.com, President of Futurehealth, Inc, inventor . He is also published regularly on the Huffingtonpost.com and is a columnist with Northstarwriters.com. He is a frequent Speaker on Politics, Impeachment, The art, science and power of story, heroes and the hero's journey, Positive Psychology, Stress, Biofeedback and a wide range of subjects. He is a campaign consultant specializing in tapping the power of stories for issue positioning, stump speeches and debates. He recently retired as organizer of several conferences, including StoryCon, the Summit Meeting on the Art, Science and Application of Story and The Winter Brain Meeting on neurofeedback, biofeedback, Optimal Functioning and Positive Psychology. See more of his articles here and, older ones, here.
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A few declarations.
-While I'm registered as a Democrat, I consider myself to be a dynamic critic of the Democratic party, just as, well, not quite as much, but almost as much as I am a critic of republicans.
-My articles express my personal opinion, not the opinion of this website.
During the third week of May, in Washington D.C. over 1,200 patriotic Americans of all faiths and the spiritual but not religious came together for the second conference of The Network of Spiritual Progressives/NSP and to lobby Congress.
These activists are challenging the misuse of religion, God and spirit by the Religious Right and the anti-religious and anti-spiritual biases within the Liberal Left.
These 'out-of-the-box' thinkers and visionaries will not be satisfied with any short-term political gain. The task of transforming society requires commitment, persistence and a deep inner life. What progressive spiritual activists have in common is a broken heart for the poor and oppressed, a commitment to total non-violent resistance no matter what the provocation, and sacrificial lives that offer time and resources to actualize the message Christ spoke of when he proclaimed the reign and the kingdom of God: in which every life is sacred and all are equal and valued just as they are.
Mankind is the only species that has the choice of annihilating itself!
American money proclaims "In God We Trust" but the facts on the ground are that we have become an empire of blasphemers. Fundamentalist Christians rail against abortion yet are for capital punishment and war. They have narrowed morality down to abortion and same sex marriage and neglect that God is love and where ever there is love: God is there.
If we are serious about a peaceful world we must have a moral agenda that stands firmly against empire building and violence.
Cesar Chavez stated the key to peace, is:
"Public Action! Public action! Public action!"
In the '60's we understood if one is not a part of the solution, one is part of the problem. Throughout America patriotic spiritual activists of all faith paths and the spiritual but not religious have found common ground and are doing something more than criticizing and whining.
Chapters of The Network of Spiritual Progressives are forming from the New York Islands to the Gulf Stream waters for this world belongs to all human beings:
Americans are waking up and realizing that the republican party is nothing more than a front operation for multinational megacorporations. The populist movement is what America is really all about. The past two decades the middle class have been devastated by free trade agreements,encouraged outsourcing and a general shift in power from the people to corporations.What is really sad about our religous devotion to the principles of free trade is that our trading partners are smart enough to use our open borders to sell their slave labor produced goods while blocking access of imports from the U.S. Populism was the true ideology that turned America into a truly great country. With personel rights and wealth for the masses. The only thing free trade has ever produced is plutocracy.
by
Gary Denson (2 articles, 0 quicklinks, 1 diaries, 262 comments)
on Friday, December 8, 2006 at 4:44:17 PM
Ive absolutely no clue as to what the heck you are talking about. Perhaps the bleak years for the left have finally caused you guys to crack up and see hallucinations.
Where to begin....OK lets start with the election. Had the GOP not underestimated the number of votes needed to steal the election, 3% when they needed to steal 5%, they would have kept the Senate and made the House a closer total. It is awfully obvious to most analysts that this was a vote against, not a vote for anything, any party or any ideology, simply a vote against the arrogance and mismanagement of the GOP. The Democrats have no capital to spend, no mandate from the people, simply a slim chance to act with authority and make a difference.
The commission seesm to have decided that the single most important goal in our situation in Iraq is to stabilize trade! Is it any wonder that they would arrive at such a conclusion given that Baker's law firm had Sadaam as a client, has Halliburton, Exxon Mobil and several other oil companies as current clients and, together with Eagleburger built trade with Iraq into a billion dollar industry in the eighties. Old Lawrence was President of the Kissinger Group(yeah that Kissinger), which, on behalf of its prestigious client list ,called The Forum, managed to get Sadaam Hussein to agree to favor them over any competing corporation for Iraqi oil. These guys have made tens if not hundreds of millions of dollars in Iraq and you can bet the farm that they have no intention of turning that spigot off.
This report throws a few bones to those naieve enough to think that Bush will act upon those recommendations you all are turning cartwheels over when he is already saying he wont! The only way to get the hell out of Iraq is if Congress turns off the money that is supporting this godawful war. Will they? I vote hell no!
by
ardee D. (6 articles, 4 quicklinks, 1 diaries, 2377 comments)
on Friday, December 8, 2006 at 5:13:54 PM
You mean you don't want them to cut the funding or you do think they will. I ran two articles on it yesterday-- one by Cindy Sheehan and one by Dennis Kucinich, who has sponsored a bill to do just that.
Oh. BTW, pass the bong.
by
Rob Kall (869 articles, 4016 quicklinks, 345 diaries, 1847 comments)
on Friday, December 8, 2006 at 5:44:44 PM
Look, this feeling of glee from the moderates and leftists here is understandable given the long drought and losing streak, but it is, in my opinion, vastly overrated and misplaced. My response above tried hard, but I guess not hard enough, to point out the fallacies in your view that this last election was an endorsement of the Democrats or that the Iraqi Commission's findings and conclusions support progressive thinking is incorrect and overly optimistic.
I would certainly and emphatically support an end to the funding of this horrid, illegal war, a war fought for three very bad reasons; one, to win the oil, two, to keep the citizens of the US in perpetual fear of terrorism which this war certainly heightens, and finally, to win fabulous profits to the selected few.
I do not enjoy the role of wet blanket I assure you, but somebody's gotta do it and Ive never shied away from my belief systems because they might be unpopular. The proposal by Kucinich will fail I strongly believe. It will fail because there are not enough folks in elected office that are willing to forego those large campaign checks written by the very people who profit most from war and devastation.
Those who sincerely wish to see the course of American politics and policies change for the better must start from the beginning; the rectification of a political system gone very rancid. They must understand that the influence of money rules this nation and the wishes of the majority of Americans is unimportant except as campaign rhetoric and empty promises to the gullible.
I am convinced, and I understand that I am virtually alone, here at least, in this view, that the way to salvage our democracy lies not with supporting one of the two major parties but with a total overhaul of our system and an ending of the influence of money upon it.
To this end I support the growth of the Green Party, if only because they have pledged to refuse all corporate donations thus freeing any elected office holder from an obligation to any but the electorate. Neither of the two major parties is willing or able to cut the ties to big money, human nature being what it si, thus they will certainly not undertake to free our elections from the expenses that cause elections to cost tens of millions (Bush spent over one hundred million in 2000, and again in 2004). At those costs the corporations are very willing and eager to jump in and give the money while incurring the gratitude of the elected, and their dependency as well.
Any discussion of our political future that does not include a way to rid us of this influence of money is a waste of time, frankly.
by
ardee D. (6 articles, 4 quicklinks, 1 diaries, 2377 comments)
on Saturday, December 9, 2006 at 10:33:06 AM
Actually this IS a win for moderates- true moderates that is. The problem is thatr the left has been so weak in the past few decades that eveeryone thinks the middle is on the 30 yard line. We have no strong effective left in this country and the stronger the right presents itself as the more people think the moderate middle is to the right of center. As I look over the world stage I am reminded that the progrssive left here is considered moderate to center right elsewhere....
by
Frank Gordon (1 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 4 comments)
on Friday, December 8, 2006 at 6:49:32 PM
I notice that you use both the word 'progressive' and the word 'populist' in the same sentence, as when you talk about the "new populist progressive movement that in most ways is very centrist." You're on to something here, but be careful in getting tripped up by language. 'Progressive' goes back to the early 20th century, to politicians like Bob LaFolette, not to mention Teddy Roosevelt and Woodrow Wilson, all of whom embraced the label. Progressives are much more conservative than populists, who mostly preceeded them. Populists had a much more radical agenda, working to limited corporate power and abuses of the monetary system. Progressives abandoned those goals, and agreed to let the 'money power' alone, in return for being allowed to play the political game. And so it is today. Progressives are essentially top-down authoritarian reformers, who think they know best. Populists are essentially bottom-up democrats, who want to decentralize economic and political power. You're right that there's an uneasy alliance for now between these two groups, but look for the progressives to dodge the big economic and foreign policy issues (including Iraq and Israel), while the populists will continue to push them. The populist problem is their racist baggage. Still, it's right-wing populists who might turn out to be more radical than the progressives.
by
Kuzminski (5 articles, 0 quicklinks, 2 diaries, 75 comments)
on Friday, December 8, 2006 at 6:50:37 PM
Since the American "Left" is only the second head of a two headed monster, whose other head is the American "Right", no victories were won in the past election. The same people who were running things under the GOP, are still running things under the Democrats. To those of you naive enough, or duplicitous enough to think other wise, continuing to delude yourselves and the public in this way, will insure that things will only get worse in this country. Political acumen can't be faked. You either have it, or you don't. The contemporary American is largely devoid of political savvy. This is amply proven by the ease by which the nation has been hijacked, pillaged, and disgraced, by a blatantly corrupt White House and Congress. The greatest enemies of the American people, have always been, and continues to be, the corrupt career politicians and political parties, who sell the nation and the people, to the highest bidder. The bogus "Left vs "Right" con game, is their oldest and most effective weapon against real political action and effective solutions to the nation's ills. As long as Americans continue to think in terms of "left" vs "right", Democrat vs Republican, and "Conservative" vs "Liberal" they will neither understand, nor overcome, the pathetic farce that passes for politics, in this country.
by
Rasoul Acheh (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 122 comments)
on Friday, December 8, 2006 at 7:05:05 PM
Every opportunity is the chance to begin the world again.
It is lethargy born of cynicism that mires one in apathy!
What the idealists in the 60's lacked, was
SPIRITUAL DEPTH!
What the "wind changers" [as Jim Wallis calls us] have is the idealism of the '60's married to a deep spiritual core-
ALL social movements that changed the world embodied both!
The abolishment of slavery began in a church:
The original "altar call" was to STAND UP against slavery.
Rev. MLK, Jr. challenged the corrupt Western church by WAKING them UP to the evil of the Vietnam War and disturbed the status quo of the empire by WAKING them UP that ALL men and women are created equal.
What flew out the window after THAT DAY we call 9/11 was COMMON SENSE!
"Soon after I had published the pamphlet "Common Sense" [on Feb. 14, 1776] in America, I saw the exceeding probability that a revolution in the system of government would be followed by a revolution in the system of religion... The world is my country, all mankind are my brethren, and to do good is my religion."-Tom Paine
What we the people have is a "democracy" run by corporate interests.
There are 64 lobbyists PER Congressional Rep.
Corporations write legislation in the 21st century:
What we need is a Third Party: a "We the People Party" to RISE UP/Intifada and the Clean Elections Bill: which can provide a leveling playing field is our hope.
Kucinich is a lone voice crying out in the wilderness and needs-and deserves- our support.
Only in solidarity do "we have it in our power to begin the world again."-TP
The greatest menace to freedom is an inert people.
~Supreme Court Justice Louis D. Brandeis
by
Eileen Fleming (154 articles, 55 quicklinks, 268 diaries, 588 comments)
on Saturday, December 9, 2006 at 9:32:05 AM
The activity of millions of idiots, don't amount to politics
Americans who're fed up with our "political system" usually arrive at this position, not out of apathy, but largely because they are tired of watching the millions of mainstream "political animals", and activists, do the same stupid things year in, and year out. This mass of mostly well-meaning humanity, is largely responsible for the crime and pathos that is U.S. politics today. It should therefore come as no surprise, that the crooks who rule over us continue to win, time and time again!
The common American "political animal" is averse to anything that resembles real political smarts, and is easily convinced by media propagandists, to work against it, whenever it rears its head. In deference to the ridiculous hoax called the "two-party" system, they will go to any length to insure that nothing disturbs it. The U.S. political system is therefore extremely "F'd" up, but not necessarily because of the host of crooks and thieves of both parties, who occupy high government office. It's so messed up, due to the consistent political ineptitude, and gullibility, of the millions of useful idiots, and activists, who more than anyone else, maintain the status quo.
by
Rasoul Acheh (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 122 comments)
on Saturday, December 9, 2006 at 2:59:50 PM
America is just starting to enter a sixty's phase.You know the old saying about clothing if you wait long enough it will come back in style. The new hippy phase wont have drugs like pot and LSD it will feature coffee, organic food and viagra.People should be happy because it beats the hell out of the kool aid drinkers mentality of the past seven years.
by
Gary Denson (2 articles, 0 quicklinks, 1 diaries, 262 comments)
on Saturday, December 9, 2006 at 3:13:43 PM
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