Reply #133: 'Liberty and freedom' when used by the Far Right...

[LeftishBrit]

generally mean the unfettered liberty and freedom of the well-off, the strong, the healthy, the majority-group members to trample all over the poor, the weak, the ill, the minorities.

Real liberty for all means sufficient social safety net, and sufficient regulation, to protect EVERYONE'S basic rights, not just the 'tough' or 'successsful'. Coercion by the threat of extreme poverty is just as much coercion as is coercion by the threat of being locked up by the police. You are not free if you are starving to death. You are not free if an employer can oppress and fleece you, because the alternative is starving to death. You are not free if you are desperately ill and dying for want of basic medical attention.

Teabagger 'liberty' often comes down to 'freedom not to pay my taxes'.

And that is not even taking into account the vicious racism, xenophobia, sexism, and social intolerance that are so often associated with the right.

There is nothing to praise about the 'teabaggers' and far-right-wing movements everywhere. They do not oppose the status quo because they want something better, but because they want something worse: e.g. a return to the early 19th century at best, the Middle Ages at worst. And any collaboration with them by progressives will only enable what is essentially a form of fascism.

'And if only the teabaggers and progressives could unite in the common goal of restoring our rights, we would be ever so much the more powerful to have a government that finally exists to serve us and not the other way around!'

And if only the teabaggers and progressives could unite, the progressives could either be crushed, or corrupted into conniving at destroying the poor and sick and minorities everywhere. Collaborations with 'Blue Dogs' may be bad enough, but collaborations with 'teabaggers' far worse.

(And never equate this from me with blind support for any party. I had 10 years of Blair. I was betrayed by my preferred party's leaders, about as much as anyone could be. Many of my dreams were destroyed by Thatcherism - and then again by New Labour's carrying on the policies of Thatcherism for 12 years now, with a very slight improvement since Blair left. But I am NOT going to collaborate with the BNP just because they don't like New Labour either!)