09-03-2022, 01:12 PM
(This post was last modified: 09-03-2022, 01:21 PM by Eric the Green.)
(09-03-2022, 05:06 AM)pbrower2a Wrote: In practice the Hard Left provokes the Hard Right into brutal reaction that contributes to further polarization of political life. The Hard Left is thus no counterbalance to the Hard Right. Street fights are not political debate.
It is telling that the American Left was completely absent from the scene on January 6, 2021. It is just as well. It could have done nothing except to become victims and create confusion. All the disgusting stuff was by the fascistic Right (and don't fool yourself: the attempt to keep Donald Trump as President through unconstitutional means is fascistic).
The far Left can't be identified with "street fights"
It is just the cutting edge of progressive political opinion. Right now it is focused around 5 House members called "The Squad" led by Alexandria Ocasio Cortez. Such figures as Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders are representative. The recently-deceased author you posted about Barbara Erinreich would be another example. There are many others, but my point is they don't dominate the Democratic Party in the way that the extreme right dominates the Republican Party. So there is certainly an imbalance there.
Here's another member of "the Left" in the US congress:
https://jayapal.house.gov/about-me/
However, most Democrats in congress and presidential candidates these days are willing to support the steps needed to move the country forward, including President Biden.
There was an extreme Left which offered violence as a solution back in the late sixties. In 1963 Lee Harvey Oswald was such a person. These days, those on the Left who are violent are limited to some young thugs upset over police violence who break some windows and set some fires and burned down a police station in Kenosha WI during otherwise peaceful demonstrations organized by the Black Lives Matter group or antifa. The extreme right seizes on these and calls the whole movement violent, but it's not true, and a lot of those thugs have been provocateurs. Such angry young folks acting out can hardly be called a political Left.
Right now, the extreme Right in our country is violent, but the extreme Left is not. I'm not saying there should be a balance in the amount of violence on each side. But if the Left does go in this direction, I don't think they realize that it takes much more organization than hoping for street riots.