Left-wing Politics

What is left-wing politics? To someone to the right of Attila the Hun, like Tom Delay, anything that smacks of "socialism" is left-wing politics. "Socialism" is any politics that proposes that wealth shouldn't be distributed upwards to the ever wealthier, but might even, (horrors!) talk about redistributing wealth downwards to the poorer, or sideways, to the middle class. Conservatives might not want to recognize this, but any taxation and government spending distributes income in one direction or another: upwards, downwards, sideways or equally. Since governments were first invented in Sumer, most distribution has gone upwards, not downwards, not equally, which may be why conservatives think of it as natural; it isn't.

What is this left and right, anyway? It began in the French Revolution, when the more revolutionary delegates in the National Assembly sat on the left, the undecided in the center (referred to as "the swamp" by both sides), and the pro-aristocracy on the right. The definition of left is always changing, and always depends upon where you stand. In the France of 1789 left-wing politics supported the rise of the bourgeoisie.

From where I stand, much of left-wing politics is too timid in its long-term perspective, but much of the political left has the same failing as the hard-right; it seeks formulas, or hard and fast positions.

In terms of current politics: If you are on the left and against the war, then, according to the purist, you shouldn't vote for funds to pursue it, period. To me that seems very correct, but politically stupid. Voting funds and mandating a deadline is the best way to force the President to recognize that the war is over, while insuring that everyone knows it's his fault; it will not be because Congress refused to "support the troops." Attaching the deadline to the supplemental spending bill means the President can't veto it without consequences--making him responsible for any interruption in funds to "support the troops."

I would have preferred the Iraq withdrawal bill promoted by Congresswoman Barbara Lee and others, providing funds only for a safe withdrawal, but it would never have passed. Lee's bill would have created a coalition of Republicans and Blue Dog Democrats, which would have voted a funding bill with no conditions at all.

In other words, pure left-wing politics would have been self-defeating. What is encouraging about the Congressional Democrats (from my point of view) is that they are beginning, ever so tentatively, to gain courage to actually govern, and to govern in the interests of the voters, not the lobby interests. Governing requires compromise.

What is the difference between left-wing politics and liberal politics? In the American context it is simply a difference of connotation: someone describing himself as a liberal may not be quite so committed to the economic agenda of the left, and may be more amenable to compromise.

Sometimes, left-wing politics makes me squirm, not because I don't agree with most of its propositions and then some, but because politically active leftists, thrown together in a demo, revert to the 1960's, the songs and the slogans. I enjoyed the sixties, too, but that was forty years ago! We need to move on.

Also, sloganeering--on the right or the left--I think it is counterproductive: I hate its repetition, its attempt to stop thought, its creation of barriers between us and 'them.' Sloganeering might define the group, but the group is already pretty well defined. What the left doesn't need is a tactic that drives everyone else away. Slogans can repel as well as attract. I think I was against Ike more, because his slogan, I like Ike, was so catchy.

Compared to the ideologues we have in power now, however, Ike was actually rational. He only began the process of dismantling the New Deal, but was prepared to live with most of it. The right-wingers in the administration want to erase every residue, no matter how successful, of the same New Deal; that's why Social Security is such a target ; it's one of the last, and most successful of the New Deal's programs. Most of the rest have already been dismantled, or revised into something unrecognizable and irrelevant, like the National Labor Relations Board, stacked now with anti-unionists, "deciding" on cases of unfair labor practices, and union elections.

Left wing politics doesn't aim to revive the New Deal, but in a way it does want to revive its ideal: the New Deal vision of government that benefits the widest number and kinds of people, instead of trying to corner the benefits for a very small, well-connected, well-heeled minority. That's really what left wing politics is about.

It's not about free abortions, gay marriage and kinky lifestyles. However, the left wing does usually support choice on abortion, because the left are for people making their own decisions, not wanting the government to force those personal decisions upon them. For the same reason, they generally support gay rights, which includes gay marriage, i.e. they support peoples' right to make their own choices, including who they love. They see the opposition to gay marriage as a case of discrimination since most leftists do not see one's kind of sexuality as a choice (both the religious right and the socially radical left claim that it is).

But these issues are diversions from the main agenda of left-wing politics, which has always been more oriented to economic issues, and to civil liberties. It is the social issues that have been used by the Right-wing as political diversions; they fear that most people agree more generally with the left on economic issues: equal pay for equal work above all; championing the worker so that he is the equal of the boss; taxation that levels differences rather than heightens them; social control over institutions, like corporations, which affect everyone by their actions; and now substantial action to slow or stop global warming. Generally, the left aspires to champion the mass of people who don't have very much, the people from whom the corporations and the present government have taken advantage.

The opposite of left-wing politics is the politics of reaction of the Bush administration and the GOP. I should add that a good many Democrats collaborate with them, because that's where the money is. The politics of the ruling class as the selfish class brought about the demise of the Roman Empire; it could do the same for us, which is why this website is about the parallels of the late Roman Empire with contemporary politics.

It is my position that left-wing politics of the distributionist and civil liberties kind would be the best antidote to selfish class rule.