Left-of-Something

It's the lack of focus, like a permanently damaged lens, that seems the overarching lesson of the politics, for want of a better term, that I think of as "Left-of-Something. (LoS)". There is an amorphous range of people Left-of-Something, extending from the Chevy suburban liberals with "Save Tibet" bumper stickers, to the unrepentant communist youth brigadiers out on the rainiest day of the century handing out the party organ. All of these people might label themselves progressive, but virtually nothing is shared across any of the groups, particularly good will. Often the animosity between Left-of-Something groups is stronger than it is for the actual reactionary forces of the right, the people and organizations that control real power in this country.

Strange, you might think, but not really. LoS people are more accessible then the actual power brokers, and so we have the spectacle of the Pacifica stations, easily the most leftist large media conglomeration in the US, being attacked for not being left enough. Liberals (those who think the bolts in the system need tightening) apologize for Clinton's pro death penalty, anti- welfare stance, and usually think that things are going swimmingly when crime figures fall and CD rates rise. Everyone attacks liberals; other Left-of-Something people consider liberals as a fifth column for the Moral Majority. Republicans, of course, think of everything beyond liberal as the edge of a flat earth.

And by the way, I might point out that in the huge and ongoing concentration of media and business, the distribution of income is more skewed than a panel of Olympic ice dancing judges. More people are without adequate medical coverage, and ominously, it's getting worse. Michael Moore, at the Media and Democracy Congress held in New York last October, was beside himself to the point where all he could do for his allotted minutes was to loudly grumble at the futility and self-defeatedness of the Left-of-Something media. He questioned whether anyone on the left actually liked or had met any of the working class supposedly at the core of LoS concerns and was rather adamant that the circular firing squad seemed to be getting larger and more accurate.

Coming from a working class, destroyed city (Flint, Michigan), Moore almost genetically understands these simple truths: we are a class-ridden society that refuses to think about class, we are a society based on the freedom to control and protect property with a strong antipathy towards the working and lower classes. We can talk endlessly about abortion, the democratic nature of Pacifica, gun control, flag burning, whether oral sex is adultery, etc., but these Bambi issues are smashed by the Godzilla of class and corporate concentrations of wealth. It's not enough to "know better", to have the correct argument or point of view in one's pocket, or to protect such a view against all comers.

To counter this, we need to get back to the big problems, or at least a set of problems which impact the majority of people in this country. Everyone needs health care, a progressive tax system vs. our present regressive system and real campaign finance reform. All Left-of -Something people should organize behind these or other big issues. Regardless of specific ideology, these are populist issues that can easily gather a great deal of support. Ideology may come into play along the way, but the quibbling, squabbling, holier-than-thou running firefight that passes for political action on the left is now past the point of parody.

Further, such an action approach inures Left-of-Something people from the standard neo-conservatives and left-bashers for the simple reason that ideology is placed on a back burner while actions and action organization start to speak for themselves. Thus, the spectacle of Jill Stewart in the New Times attacking the left, in all its ambiguous glory, becomes a beside-the- point bit of nonsense that will attenuate with time. Of course, the right will attack with a vengeance, but the attacks will have to respond to the issues and unified action groups, not real or imagined Left-of-Something ideology.

Large coalitions with a heterogeneous, populist, beyond Left-of-Something membership will have to be dealt with, en masse, by the typical societal attack dogs. Such groupings will more easily tolerate ideological differences as they manifest themselves, because actual work is being attempted with the hope of a positive outcome. The civil rights movement in the 1960's encompassed a myriad of ideologies with people from all walks of life. Although less easy to identify today, the big issues are no less pressing.

We need victories, not just for the left, but for most people in this country -- victories that reverberate outside the cloistered halls of the Left-of-Something self-defeat.

Poet Robert Lipton works as an epidemiologist and is a former director of L.A. Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting (FAIR).