A Bulletin : The Left Has Always Been in the Minority !

[kentuck]

There have been moments in our history, Watergate, the Great Society, FDR's New Deal, when the left won a small battle, but even then it was mostly due to external reasons or such, it was not due to the powerful influence of the "left". This country has always been a country for the corporations and the wealthy - built on the labor of working people of every nationality - Chinese, Irish, Scotch, and African.

When the left wins, it is the exception, not the rule. It is amazing that we have today what we call Air America radio and the Internet. That is an opportunity that has never been in the hands of the left before in our history. Because there has never been a "liberal media". This is something we should not look at as a trivial happening. We have the opportunity to communicate with the masses!

For those that are disappointed that we do not win the next election and then pass our agenda, that has never happened, with the possible exception of the Great Society. Even during Roosevelt's New Deal, it was mostly legislated out of necessity. People were desperate and desperation was a threat to the status quo, mostly left over from the Roaring 20's...Why do you think we have never been able to pass a national healthcare system for our people? Even Harry Truman tried to get it passed after FDR's death.

So, we should realize that the left has always been a minority. Any progress we have won in our history has been a long and difficult struggle. Those that have the power do not surrender it willingly. The Civil Rights Act did not come to pass because the white people all of a sudden became enlightened. It came about because the Black Panthers and other black leaders let it be known that they would burn down the establishment if changes were not made. The threat to the status quo is what brings about change - not because somebody, Lincoln or anyone else, is good-hearted...

[liberal N proud]

1. I have to disagree!

The left is not actually the minority but is actually such a diverse group that the values stray into the middle and sometimes right and it appears at those time there is a minority.
Right now there are so many people who are being told that it is bad to be liberal or a Democrat that a certain number of them will believe it and follow the kool-aid where ever it goes.
You always have those people, they need to be snapped out of their trance and they will see what is happening to everything around them.

The political climate shifts as the views of those how can't seem to make up their own minds is shifted.

[kentuck]

2. Even when we've had the majority in numbers...

We have still been the minority in failing to pass a left agenda. It doesn't happen in our country. Yeah, once in a while, we may get a crumb like the Family Medical Leave Act, where you get to keep yor job if a family member is sick for a while, but you don't get paid for it, you only get to keep your job.

[Patty Diana]

3. PURE BULLSHIT!!

There's been a democratic majority populus since Hoover ruined this country. Americans are not a people to vote against their own best interest.

[kentuck]

5. And you think a "democratic majority" is the same as a "left agenda"?

Yes, we have had overwhelming majorities per Party registration but show me where we have ever had a left agenda passed? Other than out of necessity? Bill Clinton came in with a Democratic majority in the House, Senate, and he was sitting in the White House? What "left" agenda did he get passed? The NAFTA and GATT agreements? Telecommunciations Bill? FMLA! This is a corporate nation and always has been. It has never been a nation for the people or for labor. Everything has been for the capitalists. Prove me wrong. :)

[SoCalDem]

4. The powerless are always a majority. We have a hard time getting

people to speak for us. It usually takes a very rich person with a conscience and some foresight to do it. Those people are always in short supply.

The poor/middle/whatever we are these days, have NUMBERS, but lack power..we do not control media.

Media defines everything. If you read in the paper, hear on the radio, see on tv...that YOU are a minority, eventually you will believe it.

The righties are a minority, but they ACT like a majority, because they have the money and power to make them appear to be downtrodden and misunderstood.

Basically, their propagandists are just better than ours:(

______

Imagine if every cable-news-network had several channels broadcasting 24-7...channels of UNION and LABOR news that affected ordinary folks...and a channel that analyzed legislation in a manner that made people see that it was actually AGAINST their interests.

We'll never see that because vermin always do their best work in the dark..

[kentuck]

7. Propagandists ?

Is that why we have had more wars than any nation in history? We always have a willing army ready to die for the special corporate interests...

[SoCalDem]

9. Apparently so..

Bloody shirts & flags are always waving in the breeze..

[FreedomAngel82]

6. Uh I don't think so

We, as democrats, ruled most of the twentith century.

[kentuck]

8. wake up !

What do you mean by "ruled"?

[IrateCitizen]

12. "Democrats" does not equal "the left"...

After the 1946 midterm elections, there were just as many Democrats as Republicans in the new reactionary Congress calling for "loyalty oaths" and jumping on the anti-communism-at-all-costs bandwagon.

Bill Clinton was a Democrat, but I'd hardly call him an ally of "the left". Ditto with pretty much all the other Democratic Presidents after WWII, with the possible exception of LBJ, Vietnam notwithstanding.

[kentuck]

13. Good point IC...

I think you make my point better than I... Democratic control of Congress does not equal "the left" or a "left agenda"... In fact, most of the time, the Democrats have been, and continue to be , part of the corporate Party of America.

[supernova]

10. We have won the battles that matter

I think that's important to remember. We've one the big ones:

Independance from England
The Civil War and abolition
The great reforms of the 1890s and 1910s (labor laws, child labor, etc)
Women's Sufferage
The New Deal
A-A enfranchisement in 1964 with the Voting Rights Act
The Civil Rights Movement
A woman's right to choose

And on and on...

We might be a minority, but we win the fights that matter. We win the moral arguments hands down when it comes to expanding human rights and opportunities for all. That's nothing to dismis or take lightly when you talk about how we can use our power most effectively.

So the repubs want the WH? OK, fine. But, we'll take the moral high ground every time. And when we do have a compelling argument, the rest of the country is right there with us.

[kentuck]

11. You mostly win the battles they let you win...

with a few exceptions. Women in the workplace, for example, double the workforce, but with the magic of "inflation", both husband and wife made what the husband made before the inflation. The New Deal was a reaction to the "communism" and union movements that were springing up because of the Great Depression. It was necessary crumbs taken off the corporate table. And today, who owns most of the wealth in this country? We are not an egalitarian state. We are at war right now fighting for corporate interests. And the Civil Rights Act was brought about by the threats to the status quo by Black Panthers and leaders in the Black movement, not because of some good-hearted Democratic agenda.

[supernova]

14. I don't see it that way

and I wasn't talking strictly about Democrats. I was talking about leftists of all stripes.

I hate to say it, but the Civil Rights Act would not have passed if the country hadn't been so pissed off and frightened about the Mississippi case. It's taken 40 years, to bring that man to justice, but better late than never.

Look changes have been very necessary in our society. We on the left have always been the instigators of that change. That takes guts and sometimes blood.

[kentuck]

15. I agree that the "left have been the instigators of that change"...

But it's always about "change"....And what do we feel needed to be changed? The status quo? So we are saying the status quo was not of the "left"...that's a good point to start. I'm not saying we have been totally unsuccessful but that we have been fighting a corporate "status Quo" since the beginning of this country- since only white landowners could vote and women could not but they could "own" other individuals as "slaves" and that every struggle that the left has "won" - and there have been a few - it has been done with a long struggle. That is what I mean by a "minority"...