Not long ago, I saw the great thinker of the Left, Naom Chomski, talking on a cable channel at a diner. He spoke very convincingly, albeit with 10 syllable words, about imperialist/corporate America. I listened to him on the edge of my stool.
Apparently I was the only one who found Chomski intriguing. Several people 'protested' his lecture and the channel was promptly changed to Sports. In fact, an ad for Nikes was playing out. Ironic, considering that the old man had accused Nike only moments before, of supporting abysmal labor conditions throughout the developing world.
Did the people around me see the irony? No. Not one. What they saw, I'm afraid, was an intellect with an oversized head, talking Greek. Worse, the sour looking old guy appeared to be bitching about anything and all that most people happen to enjoy.
Is this how the Left cares to reach the masses?
Okay, so the masses 'enjoy' whatever few choices the market permits. When this occurs in politics, we call it propaganda; and as the 'preemptive war' effort winds up against Iraq, you can be sure that the people are going to buy it. Strong men with many medals stand at the podium at the Pentagon and sell Americans on this outlandish war, all on the basis of appealing to our best interests.
The only real left wing candidate in recent times? Ralph Nader, who attempted to shore up his presidential bids with ZIP charisma.
Face it. The left is at a deficit in terms of showing anything appealing that people might, well, find attractive.
Lately, as I read the top conservative Websites, I find that more and more of these people are becoming wary of Bush. Some of them are 'incorporating' liberal views. Conservative Cato analyst, Alan Reynolds, recently wrote, "The government's fatal assumption was that stocks fell mainly because of accounting problems," rather than cooking the books. Here we have a true affront to the Bush administration, who, for the sake of image made a few high profile arrests to appear tough.
Conservatives are seeing through the Bush charade, but who in the Left reads the Cato reports? We know we hate the Heritage Foundation, right? But their best thinkers are every day reading The Nation, and amending OUR IDEAS to their program, which bottom line, appeals to the masses: love of family, love of country, and finally, love of (gasp!) the status quo.
The status quo sucks. But tell that to the guy on the stool beside me. He looks like an average American, what, with an American flag airbrushed across his t-shirt. To look at him, he is just another old guy sitting at the counter, sipping coffee. But Saed is an Armenian, born in Iraq.
He tells me he had to leave his homeland, considering the persecution of Armenians in Iraq, "And so I lived from one country to another, where no one would take me for who I am, not until I came to America."
Saed succeeded in the US. He bought property and ran a number of successful convenient stores. He does not like Saddam Hussein, and is not unaware of the thousands of Kurds whom Saddam gassed to death in the streets.
"You a liberal?" he asked. "You must be if you don't want to see that butcher contained. And for me? While you fight the US government, I am grateful for the security I have living in this country, and the freedom I have to be who I am. But you liberals? You make a hate fest of all of it, and who will listen to you when you are right?"
I smirked. "When we are right, or do you mean - on the right?"
Saed laughed. And he handed me a feature from today's paper, of Bush on his ranch wearing a cowboy hat, wrist bleeding, carrying cedar logs. "You know how a picture is said to be worth a thousand words?" he asked.
I nodded.
"You liberals should get a load of this," he said. "Here is the president who alone defies bans on greenhouse gasses, who is paid by the factories to lower pollution standards (how he won his office!). But all he need do here is say how he has 'liberated' his oaks from the strangling cedars to allow them water, and he is a great conservationist.
"But you tell me, what about you liberals? You are defeatists, too full of hatemongering to show the little people even a little of the strength conveyed by the president in this picture."
And I realized: He has a point. When I sought to gain big time support for InterNation in order to compete with the likes of the mainstream media, my liberal friends sent messages of PROTEST!!! What, they wondered, Did I want money? A virtual hug? "Forget it, man, we're radicals over here," one guy said.
Another left-winger snipped, "Free information hogs!"
I was accused of "entrepreneur activism." -Hummm do you see a financial opportunity? (My reply: If I wanted your fucking money so much I wouldn't risk assailing the time worn platitudes of my fellow leftwingers!)
I am strong, and resolute, trying to find stratagems to beat the big guys at their own game, but guess what? It appears that only Republicans are allowed this sense of exhilaration these days! The attitude of my liberal minded friends? Expect nothing less than DEFEAT! They are generally angry, and whatever hostility that comes their way from others, the more they feel PERSECUTED. Enemies of the state! And when the FBI doesn't come knocking? They're a little miffed.
The left is in dire straits not because our positions are wrong, but because we do not engender images of strength, or success. We come across as a reactive, intellectual elite. In a nutshell? The left is like Naom Chomski, really brilliant, yes, but otherwise, totally out of touch with ordinary people.