photocredit: Kevin Krejci (flickr)
Back in 2003, on the eve of the Iraq War, protests blanketed the world. San Francisco, DC, Paris, London, Sydney, Berlin. On that particular day, anti-war protesters united to send a clear message to George W. Bush: No Iraq War!
Actually, it was hardly clear or united. Interspersed amongst the Iraq war protesters were those chanting for Palestinian independence, vegetarianism, the end of sweat shops, more education funding, universal healthcare, the end of military spending, and more gun control. It was hardly a chant, but more of a cacophony of interests, each trying to reach a higher decibel than the rest.
This is a pervading flaw in the liberal movement. Instead of focusing on one overarching issue at a time, or even just a handful at once, liberals (or progressives as some are now calling themselves in the hopes of giving the brand a new beginning) take on more than they can chew. Just look at the aforementioned list of complaints and see how many have actually been addressed 6 years later.
photocredit: D.C. Atty (flickr)
This splintering effect does not only hurt the coherence of the movement, but the credence. It may be why so many people make the “liberal” interchangeable with “flip-flopper,” “wimpy,” or someone who lacks fundamental principles. Each new sub-topic siphons powers away from the most pressing causes of the day.
Conservatives are masters at keeping the pack intact. Even if they are falling off a cliff, they will do so together. There is tremendous power in that. The Republican party currently has little to no political capital, outnumbered in both chambers, a dismal approval rating, and the Bush stain that is hard to rub off. Yet, they are heard and command respect. They still have power while being powerless. Overtures and concessions to the GOP have been made by Democrats, infuriating the liberals that back the latter. By staying united, an unmovable, impermeable blob, they force others to change course or make deals that benefit the conservative cause.
The current political landscape would make anyone think the liberal agenda is steamrolling through Congress and sweeping the nation. But it isn’t. It’s crawling forward, in need of many jump starts, and reaching the finish line a mutated thing alien to many liberals. Compare that to almost any year in the Bush administration with a Republican Congress (2000-2006). Nearly every initiative he proposed was passed, or at least seriously considered. The Democrats were pushed aside, and rarely pushed back. Even policies Bush proposed that jarred with traditional conservatism were approved by GOPers that were still fond of Reagan. Conservative principles were abandoned time and time again by Republicans, but they were so in unison.
Liberals needs to understand this basic fact of political pressure: one firm blow is more effective than dozens of little pricks. If they want Obama to listen to their cause, they need to apply firm pressure, all at once. This has clearly not been the case thus far. Things like Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell, which could be axed out by Obama in one firm blow, are hardly a sure thing. He doesn’t see the urgency in dealing with it. That is where activists come in.
They need to pressure Congress and the President to act and now. But they need to find unity first.
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Tags: bush · conservative · democrats · liberal · obama3 Comments
I think that you are confused. You are grouping numerous types of liberals together and assuming that they are the same thing. Democrats aren’t automatically what is commonly referred to as liberal and those that you are referring to as liberal (the protesters) do not necessarily consider themselves democrats. Many “liberal” protesters oppose politics in general. Many still oppose our civilization as a whole. By demanding that all of these protesters unite you are demanding that many DIFFERENT groups of people with different belief systems and often opposing viewpoints on key issues unite. While in a Utopian society this would be ideal, it just isn’t going to happen.
The wars that these people were protesting when Bush was in office are still going on with Obama there. These people continue to protest them.
Protests in general have never been effective in this country even when the protesters themselves are united (hell protests have never really been effective anywhere). Working THROUGH THE SYSTEM also doesn’t work to accomplish many of the things the protesters are asking for/demanding.
I believe what you are trying to talk about is uniting the Democratic Party. This is something that could more realistically be done than uniting the people that oppose the political climate of America in general. Perhaps you should talk about certain politicians in particular that should work together rather than grouping all of the unhappy protesters in this country together.
I group liberals with Democrats, not the other way around. I think it’s safe to assume liberals are more likely to be Democrats than Republicans–and they are more likely to be Green Party than Democrats, but the Green Party is just a soap box nowadays.
The point i try to make in linking liberals to democrats is that the pressure they are trying to apply to Democrats (the majority, and supposedly ruling, party) is ineffective because of how disparate their aims are. This is more the liberal activist leader’s fault (MoveOn, Democracy Now, TrueMajority) than the Democratic party’s. The Evangelical movement, just by themselves, has more activist power in politics than most cause-related groups on the Left combined.
As for your assessment of the effectiveness of protesters, I think that is not completely fair. Protesters have been quite effective at influencing policy. Maybe not as much as in Western Europe, but protests have halted wars (George HW Bush wrote in his memoir that his decision not to proceed to Baghdad during the Gulf War was in part influenced by his fear of the protester’s power over public opinion), and reformed domestic policy (civil rights, women’s suffrage, labor laws).
I think a unified liberal front is indeed possible. It has happened before. But the problem now is that the fast-paced and identity-focused media and culture we live through fuels the desire of many to make their own journey to Capitol Hill. Most liberals, even those protesting the war and our way of life, share a lot of basic principles (equality, economic safety nets, tolerance), they just need to take a page out of the conservative movement and learn to make slow, but transforming progress.
In the United States there are Democrats, Republicans, independents,a green party and even a Vampyres, Witches and Pagan Party (which believe it or not is recognized by the US Federal Elections Committee)
Regardless of all these “parties” it is no secret that Democrats and Republicans run the majority of this country. For the most part, if people decide which of the two mainstream parties are closer to their values.
The Republican Party has a strict moral code and far right conservatives continuously fight to keep the party within the boundaries of that code. Democrats however, are considered “liberals” because the party has a broad, open-minded political stance. Most people who consider themselves to have liberal values and do not “waste” their vote on a party that they know has no shot of winning, will choose to vote Democrat.
That being said, not everyone that supports the Democratic Party is going to agree on which issues are most important. The key purpose of “unifying” the party is to accomplish as much as they can.
However spreading efforts out over 20 different major issues weakens the party and in my opinion shows liberals to be unsteady, whiners who can’t pick a cause to concentrate on.
When a group of people shout different things out at the same time, its impossible to distinguish who is saying what. On the other hand if everyone shouts the same thing in unison, the message is loud and clear.
The main point here is that there is power in numbers, and since the Democratic Party has such a wide variety of people with differing ideals and beliefs, it is important for the Party to unite as much as possible. Republicans know what they believe, they know where their party stands on major (and most minor) issues. Conservatives don’t stray off their path much. Liberals need to pick a path.