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In one of his books, Chris Hayes advances a rather sophisticated notion of how Liberals and others on the left function in American politics.
According to Hayes, Liberals are more or less centrists or center-left folk. Groups to the left of Liberals include Progressives and radicals such as true Socialists and true Communists.
Now, the common wisdom seems to be that Liberals are proactive folks who come up with visionary leftist policies and try to get them implemented. But Hayes doesn't believe that. He believes liberals are almost reactionary in that they are driven not by their own proactive visions but instead in response to groups further to the left of them.
Here's how it works. First, groups to the left of Liberals propose a proactive visionary policy that, if implemented, would radically change the status quo in the country. Next, Liberals become alarmed because -- contrary to conventional wisdom -- Liberals actually don't want to change the status quo. For one reason or another they want it to remain about the same. Consequently, Liberals now come up with their own "liberal" proposal to counter the radical proposal.
At this point, Liberals look around for support for their proposal. Often enough, they find support in center or center-right Conservatives who no more want to change the status quo than Liberals do, and who too fear the radical proposal to do so. Together, the Liberals and Moderate Conservatives out-vote the radicals and implement their plan to head off, or short-circuit, the radical plan.
The new Liberal/Moderate Conservative plan now gets implemented. By being implemented it decreases the demand to radically change the status quo, and thus nothing really radical gets done.
Hayes believes that the process might no longer function well because the radical left has all but been destroyed in this country due to sustained attacks against it that began as far back as the 1920s with the Red Scares, and that triumphed around the time Reagan became president. Because the process has been so weakened, the right has been allowed to drift further and further to the right. After all, there's little or no reason for a right winger to stay in the middle if there's no longer a need to compromise with the Liberal left. Hence, he or she is freed to "leave the reservation" and become a far right winger.
Now here's a real life example of what Hayes is talking about. In the 1960s there was a growing pollution crisis in the United States. Radicals proposed to solve the problem in ways that Liberals found threatening to the status quo. Consequently, Liberals united with Moderate Conservatives under the leadership of Richard Nixon, a conservative, to create the Environmental Protection Agency in December of 1970.
Again, one of the last times this process happened on any great scale was due to the health care crisis. Basically, radicals proposed universal single payer health care. Liberals, led by Obama, countered with a Moderate Conservative program first implemented in Massachusetts by a Republican governor. This became known as "Obamacare" and was passed into law by Liberals and a small number of Moderate Conservatives.
Summary: In the view of Hayes and many others now, Liberals are guardians of the status quo who are willing to sell out real change in favor of preserving the status quo.
Just For Your Information.
In one of his books, Chris Hayes advances a rather sophisticated notion of how Liberals and others on the left function in American politics.
According to Hayes, Liberals are more or less centrists or center-left folk. Groups to the left of Liberals include Progressives and radicals such as true Socialists and true Communists.
Now, the common wisdom seems to be that Liberals are proactive folks who come up with visionary leftist policies and try to get them implemented. But Hayes doesn't believe that. He believes liberals are almost reactionary in that they are driven not by their own proactive visions but instead in response to groups further to the left of them.
Here's how it works. First, groups to the left of Liberals propose a proactive visionary policy that, if implemented, would radically change the status quo in the country. Next, Liberals become alarmed because -- contrary to conventional wisdom -- Liberals actually don't want to change the status quo. For one reason or another they want it to remain about the same. Consequently, Liberals now come up with their own "liberal" proposal to counter the radical proposal.
At this point, Liberals look around for support for their proposal. Often enough, they find support in center or center-right Conservatives who no more want to change the status quo than Liberals do, and who too fear the radical proposal to do so. Together, the Liberals and Moderate Conservatives out-vote the radicals and implement their plan to head off, or short-circuit, the radical plan.
The new Liberal/Moderate Conservative plan now gets implemented. By being implemented it decreases the demand to radically change the status quo, and thus nothing really radical gets done.
Hayes believes that the process might no longer function well because the radical left has all but been destroyed in this country due to sustained attacks against it that began as far back as the 1920s with the Red Scares, and that triumphed around the time Reagan became president. Because the process has been so weakened, the right has been allowed to drift further and further to the right. After all, there's little or no reason for a right winger to stay in the middle if there's no longer a need to compromise with the Liberal left. Hence, he or she is freed to "leave the reservation" and become a far right winger.
Now here's a real life example of what Hayes is talking about. In the 1960s there was a growing pollution crisis in the United States. Radicals proposed to solve the problem in ways that Liberals found threatening to the status quo. Consequently, Liberals united with Moderate Conservatives under the leadership of Richard Nixon, a conservative, to create the Environmental Protection Agency in December of 1970.
Again, one of the last times this process happened on any great scale was due to the health care crisis. Basically, radicals proposed universal single payer health care. Liberals, led by Obama, countered with a Moderate Conservative program first implemented in Massachusetts by a Republican governor. This became known as "Obamacare" and was passed into law by Liberals and a small number of Moderate Conservatives.
Summary: In the view of Hayes and many others now, Liberals are guardians of the status quo who are willing to sell out real change in favor of preserving the status quo.
Just For Your Information.