Expressed by Shannon Love at Chicago Boys:
Glenn Reynolds doesn’t come out and say it, but in his “The Tea Party Dominance Was Inevitable” editorial he skirts the idea, so I will just say it: The American left needs its own Tea Party movement. Ordinary Americans with leftist values need to launch an insurgency against the Democratic establishment just as the Tea Party has launched one against the Republican establishment.
The Founders well knew that the primary political dynamic in any free society was never faction against faction but the people versus the state. We have forgotten this essential insight at the heart of American governance. Distracted by the struggle of left versus right, we have let a political class form that serves no faction but itself. It is The Combine…
Which is all very true. Of course, I doubt that the full blown, leftist program would sell well even if presented by people on the left who were actually fighting against the Ruling Class – but the basic idea here is correct: Americans mistrust government, and are especially dismayed with the government we currently have. Anyone who in any way, shape or form is identified with the current Powers That Be is doomed.
On the other hand, a rational left would both be valuable as well as having a chance at winning from time to time. To become rational, the left will have to purge itself of the pro-abortion fanatics and roundly turn on everyone who seeks to use the courts to impose new laws. But much hay could be made by such a purged left in a campaign to continue to spend large amounts on social programs – though it would also be wise for any such leftist desire to insist that local people should actually control where the money for such spending goes.
It is quite a circle to square for the left – but a liberal TEA Party would be healthy for American politics and I hope it happens.
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