Without Liberalism, America Would Be Sparta Instead of Athens

Is Liberalism Dead? Or Merely Buried Under It’s Own Weight? Or the unreasoned prejudices of the Right Wing?

When I was growing up, one felt proud to be thought of as a liberal. We wore it like a badge of honor. At that time, at the free schools inNew York, it seemed like everyone was a liberal.

And then what happened?
I think it happened around the time of McCarthy. He painted liberals as closet communists.
And it was a case of monkey see, monkey do. Unfortunately, McCarthy had a big following who saw commies around every corner.
I used to read Dorothy Shiff's great paper before Murdoch murdered it. It contained Murray Kempton, Max Lerner and the words of other liberal writers. We all related in those days. And many of us were poor kids, products of the City schools. It is a shame that two of the leaders of today's extreme right wing, were children of the liberal movement in New York in the days before McCarthy. Unfortunately, McCArthy was an unsuccessful senator who was worried about re-election until he saw that everybody was worried about Russia's attempt at world domination. Commie hunting turned out to be his forte and unfortunately Eisenhower did nothing to shut him up even though he hated everything that he stood for. Nixon saw what a successful argument it was especially when it came to prosecuting Whittaker Chambers for allegedly hiding microfilm to give the Russians. He quickly pounced on anyone or everyone who might be a "pinko" type, ie. commie sympathizer. With that kind of pejorative labeling there was no future for liberalism and it nearly died the death of a thousand cuts. What finally put the last nail into liberalism's coffin was the Rainbow Coalition started by Jesse Jackson. Everything seemed to go alright until Jesse tied with the Black Islam movement and Farrakhan started attacking New York liberals. That was the beginning of the end exacerbated by the nationalistic tendencies of each member of the coalition which became mired in attacking each other for advantage. The true liberals just saw that this was a losing cause and moved their money and support elsewhere. That was the true kiss of death for not only liberalism as we knew it but for the democratic party as a whole. The Republicans started labeling us representing the extreme elements of society, the hard-liners, the left-wingers, the minorities. With all of the garbage we had to endure, our base of support simply slipped away. We lost the south; we lost a large percentage of the white population who was offended by the self-aggrandising programs of the Coalition which started self-destructing almost from the day it was formed. It was a sad time for the liberal and progressive movement. Now, after having been painted so long as being progressives and liberals, one wonders whether it is in our interest to revitalize a name that always stood in my mind for the best that a society can aspire to. It was too bad that the democrats were in such disarray at that point, that they practice healing but the verbiage level was too intense.
Now, we are starting on a new election. There seems to be a growing realization that liberalism can really offer something to an America in shock for the last eight years from a cabal of mean spirited, self-aggrandizing oil warriors who have nothing to offer this country in terms of a vision. That liberalism should be recognized as the real springboard for America's leadership in the world; that liberalism was the guiding force that allowed millions to participate in the great experiment called democracy. Can we bring back liberalism? Is it in our interests to do so? And if not, what can we replace those ideals with? Such questions will reverberate long into the night as we ponder our future in the democratic party of 08.

Les Aaron