in 1985, I stood with a group of protestors speaking out against the (now renamed) School of Americas, which has recently become known to the rest of the world. Between 1985 and 1988, I wrote over 100 letters for Amnesty International. In 1991, I joined the Socialist Party USA, and was active in the 1992 campaign of J. Quinn Brisben, the SPUSA's candidate, who remains a friend, and whose name my son bears.
I have worked with a number of liberal theologians over the years protesting many injustices. In 1993, in Chicago, I changed my affiliation to the Democratic Socialists of America, and worked with radical socialist groups in Chicago in working to squat vacant houses and legally wrest them from the slumlords that held them. I have read Marx and Engels, Che and Mao, and am familiar with passages from the Federalist Papers that were controversial enough to have led to Brisben's having to defend himself against charges of being a communist by reading them in class. All in all, not a bad resume for a 34 year old activist.
So why, the question should be asked, do I not continue to align myself with the American left?
Well, if the truth be told, I did not abandon the American left, they abandoned ME.
The left has a sordid history of listening to doomsayers. As I mentioned in the blog previous, the oil crisis is but one example. When I was in grade school in the '70's, we were informed we had a 20 to 30 year supply. In the '80's, my brothers and sisters were given the same timetable. In the 90's, the same timeline was given to my friends' children. Now, the same timetable has been given us. These doomsayers base their predictions on worst case scenarios and evaluations of known oil reserves, without acknowledging that, as technological knowledge increases, so does our ability to extract more oil from the reserves we do have.
Coupled with that, the left has continued to make itself increasingly hostile to my beliefs. Instead of embracing social gospel theologians, they insist on dismissing us as being a bunch of "kooks" who hold to antiquated mythology. They have lost a consistent and powerful ally. Add to that their increasing pressure for federal funding for abortions, which many of my contemporaries find appalling, and their push to remove the mere mention of God from any public building anywhere.
The final caveat came in 2002, when I worked with a democratic candidate for the Wisconsin state assembly. As I spoke with the paid strategist the state party had sent down to work with us, we discussed the area where I lived, an area of mostly un- and underemployed folks who were fed up with the Republican way of doing things. If we concentrated our campaign there, I assured them, I could guarantee my precinct.
I was informed that phone polling would determine the areas to be canvassed. When I protested that many of the folks in my precinct didn't HAVE phones (a fact I knew well, as many of them would come through my door to use mine), I was informed that they didn't matter.
Well, I blew a gasket, but I remained with the campaign. The candidate lost, but by a small margin that I believe to this say could have been erased by canvassing my precinct.
The American left has increasingly distanced itself from its traditional followers. By aligning themselves closely with their more radical elements, they have shunned their centrists, who turn increasingly to Republican and third party alternatives. They have spit on the values that many of us hold dear, and in doing so, have repulsed a strong contingent among their potential supporters.
I, for one, hope never to return to their camp.
Respectfully submitted,
Gideon MacLeish