The biggest change during my 50 years in and around American politics
The biggest change during my 50 years in and around American politics
And how I've moved further to the left of center without changing my political views at all
Appears in this episode
My start in American politics occurred 50 years ago this month, in December 1971, when on winter break from law school I volunteered for the incipient (and ultimately doomed) presidential campaign of George McGovern. My political views then — to grossly simplify them — were that I was against the Vietnam War and the military-industrial complex, strongly supportive of civil rights and voting rights, and against the power of big corporations.
At that time, compared with today, the political spectrum running from left to right was short. (See my diagram, just below.) The left was demonstrating against the Vietnam War, sometimes violently. I was committed to ending it through peaceful political means, which was why I supported McGovern. The “right” included liberal Republicans (yes, there really were some) such as Nelson Rockefeller, who would be Gerald Ford’s vice president three years later.
The American political spectrum over the last 50 years and my position on it (inspired by a tweet by Colin Wright).
Twenty-five years later, I was in Bill Clinton’s cabinet, and the political spectrum from left to right was much longer. The biggest change was how much further right the right had moved — due both to Ronald Reagan and to corporate and Wall Street money bankrolling right-wing candidates and messages. Bill Clinton sought to govern from the “center” (he famously “triangulated”). But the “center” had moved so far right that Clinton ended welfare, cracked down on crime, and deregulated Wall Street. All of which put me further to the left of center — although I had barely changed my political views at all.
Which brings me to today, when the spectrum from left to right is the longest it’s been in my 50 years in and around politics. Despite all the howls from the right about “cancel culture” and “woke-ness” on the left, I don’t think the left has moved much from where it was a half-century ago. Nor, frankly, have I. But the right has moved far, far rightward. Donald Trump brought America about as close as we’ve ever come to fascism. He incited an attempted coup against the United States. To this day, he and most of the Republican Party continue to deny that he lost the 2020 election. And they are getting ready to suppress votes and disregard voting outcomes they disagree with.
At this rate, I can’t help but wonder where the “center” will be twenty-five years from now. What do you think?
The biggest change during my 50 years in and around American politics
Thank you Robert for clarifying why I'm so far left. Full disclosure, I'm your age, my progressive/left beliefs haven't changed, ever. I was a history major, taught holocaust sturdies to high school students so I have no illusion at what I see happening in the US now and I am terrified. Handing "W" the presidency from the Supreme Court, Mitch McConnell shepherding in Citizens United for the Koch Bros, Scotus knocking down voting rights, etc, and now criminalizing abortion. (The Nazi's did that in the 1930's silencing doctors and information.) A legal analyst stated last night that the government is going to go after gay marriage next. Republican led states clearly behaving like authoritarian governments literally imposing outrageous laws on Covid that will kill their constituents and shutting down free and fair elections, run by the state, decided by the state. (Omg) Petrify people and you control them. I left the Democratic Party years ago because I hold them complicit for where the country is now. Like a previous writer here I want to leave the US and am planning my emigration. I truly believe now, and it's taken me a long time to to say this out loud, the future is dark and hopeless here. Our institutions have been methodically hollowed out, Americans are profoundly ignorant for many reasons. As long as right-wing hate speech and conspiracy theories are the megaphone to society with nothing to dismantle it, surly nothing can change.
50 years from now, we may not exist as a country. Certainly not the country we are familiar with. The tyranny of the minority will be the rule of the day, and the majority will be permanently and completely excluded from our so-called "democracy". Unless we drastically change our electoral system (e. g., dissolve the electoral college, have strong term limits for all top US Government offices including judicial), things will only get worse. The question is only how quickly this will happen. It has already accelerated beyond our wildest nightmares. I hope you can convince me that I am wrong.