Are The Left And Right Uniting, Switching Roles, Or What?

It’s Way Past Time To Ditch The Simple Labels

   Nine weeks from today, the USA is scheduled to hold what many believe will be its most consequential election, perhaps since The Founding. Well, it is certainly shaping up to be the most spirited contest in my 74 years. So let’s meet it head on and ‘get political.’

   Full disclosure: While I had considered myself to be a Leftist of various stripes over the past 55+ years, recent history has led me to ditch that label for a bunch of different reasons. Looking at the reasons for doing so is what this essay is all about. I hope many of you will see the logic in my decision.

   No matter which party or candidates one supports, the loudest voices from all are convinced that the very future of the country is at stake this coming November 5th. The intensity of that idea has led to some interesting changes within the two main factions, the Ds and the Rs. Let’s look at a few of the issues.

Free Speech: Traditionally, it has been the ‘liberal’ faction of the country who have been the staunchest defenders of free speech; not any more. Today, the people most actively involved in shutting folks up are self-identified liberals. 

   They are doing so in the pursuit of ‘safe spaces,’ in opposition to ‘hate speech’ or in the name of ‘protecting’ oppressed or marginalized groups. Those on the Right  call liberals names, attack their policies, etc., but they are not calling for liberal voices to be shut down.* Again, we shall leave the topic there, but I hope mentioning it will spark further thinking.

   The weird reality is that along with becoming the ‘champions’ of free speech, some on the Right are expressing the same level of disagreement with the dominant corporate propaganda that is usually seen as a ‘radical’ or ‘Left’ issue. A recent Tucker Carlson episode is an excellent example.**

   Big Pharma’s extortionist monopoly prices, its domination of federal research monies used to maximize both profits and market share, even its efforts to claim patents on Indigenous plants’ and peoples’ DNA have all been subject to criticism from progressive voices for many years.

   Carlson’s interview of a man I would consider to be a whistleblower on both Big Pharma and the government agencies that are supposed to be monitoring them could, with some minor alterations, sound like Jimmy Gore or a similar voice on the Left. How could that be, and what does it mean?

   Forever Wars: While support for most US military (mis)adventures remain solidly bi-partisan, there is one significant disagreement, the country’s funding of its proxy war against Russia in Ukraine. Republicans’ opposition to continued spending has reached nearly 100, and Trump has pledged to stop sending any more support, “on day one.”

   This represents a significant reversal. Usually, if there is any significant ‘anti-war’ sentiment in Congress, it is among Democrats, not Republicans. In this case, there is the added accusation from Democrats that Trump and his supporters in Congress are ‘puppets’ of Putin. 

   Russian Interference:The entire situation gets even stranger, when you add the Russiagate allegations, coming from Democrats, that Trump only won in 2016 because Putin helped him. That charge was thoroughly investigated for over two years, and nothing significant was found. That hasn’t stopped the Democrats and most of the media from continuing to discuss it as if it were a proven fact. Okay, now on to some possible answers to those problems.

   The Tea Party Rank-and-File: Several years ago, Ralph Nader proposed an alliance between progressives and the rank-and-file members of the Tea Party. Unfortunately, nothing much came of the idea. Since Nader’s audience would have been among left-leaning people, I suspect those folks didn’t have much interest in sucking it up and having the ‘hard conversations’ needed to bridge the gap between the two groups.  

   However, Ralph was onto something, a widely shared frustration with the powers that be. Yes, the details were messy, and they still are. Once we get past the shared disgust with political corruption, progressives and Tea Party folks have very different targets for their frustrations. So what to do? Glad you asked.

   We need to get the conversation going, and confronting specifics (immigration/racism or gay/straight/trans/whatever) is not the way to go. There is, however, an easier ‘sell,’ discussing every ruling groups ‘divide and conquer’ strategy. What might that look like in real time?

   Door-to-door Canvassing: With a short pamphlet about how the powerful like to distract us from their abuses, I knock on Joe MAGA’s door. I know he’s MAGA of some sort because he’s got a Trump 2024 flag waving from his garage roof and a campaign sign in his yard. 

   When he opens the door, I have a carefully worded short observation to make about all the ‘noise’ filling our lives, followed by a question designed to hopefully get a positive response. I then offer the pamphlet, leaving it up to Joe whether or not to continue the conversation right then and there.

   Social Media: This essay is the latest in an ongoing effort to create that meeting with Joe, but on-line. If I can convince you that it’s crucial to speak with the tens of millions of ‘Joes’, I will do so. I am still working on a way to ‘target’ places where Joe is more likely to see my thoughts than he does now, without opening the floodgates (making all my posts ‘public’) to fruitless exchanges, or having to spend tons of time blocking people. 

   Random Strangers: Every evening, Daisy and I go to a local dog park. I spend my time there divided between walking the perimeter with her and sitting on one of the benches provided, hopefully, watching her zoom, chase/be chased, wrestle, etc. Over the past few months, I have met a lot of friendly folks with whom I now have a talking relationship, and a few of them are more than open to discussing ‘the state of the world.’ If they wanted to, I’m sure lots of folks could find similar opportunities. 

   Ditch the labels: There is only one label worth having - human being. It’s a frightening task, but getting enough of us to agree with that statement is our best hope for survival. So let’s think of it as ‘inspiring’ or ‘majestic’ instead.  

*Judge Andrew Napolitano was a college classmate. I was an SDS member, and he was among those who actively opposed everything we did. Today, he is a staunch defender of free speech, and it has gotten him into serious trouble, most recently causing him to be kicked off YouTube, where he was airing his podcast, Judging Freedom.

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