Progress does not come at a slow and steady pace. After years on a plateau there is frequently a sudden realization or epiphany that change is necessary to survive. We may be near that point now.
Here long time author, fighter, and newspaper columnist Anthony Noel allows himself to feel a new hope.
I'm working on an essay called "In Spite of Ourselves," subtitled: "The American Left is Useless - And It's Going To Win Anyway."
The simple fact is that, while many of us have a big investment in claiming victory "for" the Left on issues that "our" policies are - suddenly, seemingly - being embraced globally, people sitting at their kitchen tables drinking beers and wondering where their next paycheck is coming from don't give a SHIT about labels like "Left" and "Right."
Since McGovern '72 the American Left has been unable to organize a fish fry, let alone a political movement of any consequence. Yet suddenly the things so many of us have been advocating for, to smirking politicos and mostly-empty rooms, are coming to pass. That has very little to do with us and whole lot to do with societal reality: Since the Obama the Spineless took office and immediately cut deals with the health care lobby, it has become increasingly obvious to growing numbers of people whose last concern is what ideology is behind this or that proposed program or new law that government isn't going to drive change - so they must. As a result, people of every political stripe - but far more importantly, people who DON'T GIVE A SHIT ABOUT POLITICS 0 have expressed their disgust with the status quo in numbers not seen since in this country since the late '60s.
We can thank each of the following for that:
endless warring
global warming
gay marriage
marijuana prohibition
Thomas Piketty
Kshama Sawant
Palestine
Pope Francis
Occupy
#BlackLivesMatter
And while no one else will, we should also thank each other. Because no one else is going to, of course - but that's not why we're lefties. We're lefties because if we hadn't been pointing to and complaining about and offering solutions to all these issues and more, and pointing to solutions, the growing embrace of those solutions might still be a decade off.
We do it because we know there is something bigger than ourselves at stake, and because if we die tomorrow and never see the fruits of our advocacy, we can rest knowing that it's not because we didn't try.
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