Progressive Left Dissatisfaction

I ran into this video clip on the Internet recently.

I watch the young Turks to get a feel for what the sincere left is thinking. MSNBC and publications, like “The Nation,” mostly support the Democratic Party. This is not true for The Young Turks. They have sincere convictions and will not compromise just because there is a Democrat in the White House. Watching the Young Turks is a good way to feel the pulse of the thinking left. As I suspected, there is much dissatisfaction with the President’s foreign policy and his continued attacks on civil liberties.

I think it is obvious that the idealistic left feel totally betrayed by President Obama. He has continued the operation of Guantanamo Bay, he has continued the rendition program, continued the Patriot Act, continued the War on Drugs, has plans to continue the Afghan war for another ten years at minimum, has put a health care program in that favors big insurance companies at the expense of the little guy, has failed to reinstate Glass Stegal and has killed American citizens without charges. Most of the fake left in the media roll over and accept whatever the Democrats do because they think that they are better than the Republicans. The sincere left does not think this. They worked tirelessly to get the President into office and expect him to follow his promises. They have been waiting decades for reform and the President seems totally deaf to his constituents. During his campaign he portrayed that he was going to be the most progressive president in history but, instead he looks little different than George Bush.

Other members of the sincere left have attacked Obama as well. Liberal leaning John Stewart seems to look at the President’s term as being politics as usual with little being accomplished. In an interview, John Stewart sincerely asked what the president has done since he has been in office.

John Stewart is unique among the leftists in that he wields a lot of influence even though he is not an official member of the media. Often he will cover stories that the media does not and forces much of the media to report on the things he has been talking about on his show. John Stewart’s comedic style of reporting also allows him to take shots at people that other members of the media would not be able to get away with. This has allowed his TV show to become one of the sharpest critics of the Obama administration.

So what does all this dissatisfaction on the left mean? Is this just temporary, or will the left once again rally around their politicians in the future in the vain hope that they are better than the other guys? Only time will tell but I think we are seeing the left starting to fracture as they become less confident that the changes they want can happen through political means. After all, not only do politicians only care about re-election rather than being true liberals but, the left also has to deal with some very important contradictions in their own ideology. The most obvious off the top of my head is that they think Wall Street controls the government and politicians but, want political change at the same time. How can they expect the same politicians to reign in Wall Street when they are all bought off by Wall Street? It does not make much sense but, more and more of the leftists are starting to realize this. Some might become more radicalized. Others may start to reconsider their ideology or the politicians they support as seen here.

For those from the left out there reading this, I want you to consider something. The current President is not the first to be undermined by corporate power but has instead been in a long line of Democrat and Republican presidents that have done so. The book a “Renegade History of the United States” is written by a liberal who goes into how many of the progressive heroes of the 20th century actually looked out for corporate interests rather than the people. He even goes into how FDR’s New Deal benefited Wall Street and the corporate establishment and was totally devoid of true progressivism, which many liberals today think it enshrines. Democracy has been undermined by corporate interests for a long time and anyone with a liberal bent should read “Renegade History” by Thaddeus Russel.

472 thoughts on “Progressive Left Dissatisfaction”

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472 thoughts on “Progressive Left Dissatisfaction”

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