American liberalism is functionally a mainstream leftism which has been beaten down by the need to constantly defend itself and the marginalized peoples it represents from anarcho-capitalist Christian conservative white supremacists, and I just can't get mad about it.
Liberals are soft on capitalism, but in their defense, most people don't give a shit about capitalism beyond how to make it work better for them and theirs, and they are the main ones trying to regulate and reform it.
Liberals tend to be overly cautious and don't jump on bold progressive policies, but they've been stung numerous times by the ensuing conservative backlash, and they have plenty of experience pulling their hair out trying to get even watered down versions made law.
Not to mention that some "bold progressive policies" are a bit stupid and self-serving.
PROGRESSIVE: Free college now!
LIBERAL: We agree education is too expensive, but unless we fix K-12 first, free college is just a handout to affluent white people --
PROGRESSIVE: You're a monster!
LIBERAL: We agree education is too expensive, but unless we fix K-12 first, free college is just a handout to affluent white people --
PROGRESSIVE: You're a monster!
Like, it's one thing to say we need to address climate change -- we really, really do or we're all going to die -- but liberals are well aware that taking away Americans' gas guzzlers is like seizing their guns. It will get them skinned alive electorally if not literally.
As I've said before, America is racist as fuck and in denial, and Reaganism and GOP anti-democratic initiatives have rigged our political system against anyone left-leaning or even sane, and that's the system Democrats and liberals have been forced to live in.
So while it's hip to shit on liberals and dog pile on Democrats for their "intransigence" or their desperate need to compete with the conservative money machine, all it really does is make it harder to get any kind of progressive legislation done.
America is not Europe. Europe isn't even Europe the way self-styled progressives and socialists imagine. And I'm not happy with the situation either. But it's easy to talk shit when you're not in power and you're not personally in the crosshairs of fascist "conservatives."
In point of fact, conservatives love "progressives" and "socialists" who spend all their time attacking Democrats because you make their job so much easier.
So yeah, liberalism may be a degenerate leftism, and Democrats are too shellshocked by the past 40 years to be the progressive champions we crave, but they've taken their lumps and know what they're dealing with, which is more than I can say for most "leftists."
And I can't help observing that some of the loudest anti-liberal voices on or trumpeted by "the left" are themselves millionaires, anti-choice conservatives, not so subtle racists, nativists, herrenvolk socialists, and other cynical opportunists.
I need hardly mention the crazies, the tankies, the pro-Assad / pro-Putin "anti-imperialists," the red-browners, the Nazbols and Strasserists, and the regular fuckwits obsessed with destroying capitalism and nothing else, who make the left look bad.
Because I want progress. I want to smash social and economic inequity and injustice. I want to transform our lives into something sustainable and beautiful, not this coal-fired hell of mass extinction choking on plastic.
We can smash capitalism, too. I don't care. As long as what follows is actually better.
But I'm not convinced we're all on the same side.
But I'm not convinced we're all on the same side.
