American Socialists, where are they?

Kaze Araki

Libertarian Communist
#1
The U.S. has a long history of Socialism, Unionism and Anarchism, but nowadays these terms are portrayed with utter contempt and shunned away as fringe ideologies. Even in the political scene, The Left are predominantly Liberal and not really Socialist in the proper sense. The U.S. has shifted so far to the right as such that if Henry A. Wallace were to live in 2011, people would condemn him as outright Communist. Yet, how did it reach to the point that it is today?

This dullness of vision regarding the importance of the general welfare to the individual is the measure of the failure of our schools and churches to teach the spiritual significance of genuine democracy.
Henry A. Wallace

 
#2
I don't consider these forces as fringe as the rest of society may consider. The way I view it is that these forces have too many differences among one another, leaving them divided and they are spread out amongst society. A good number of them, aware of their political reality probably throw their lot in with the force that claims to be left in America - The official liberal establishment - simply because their own views aren't in enough momentum by their eyes. It's mostly the more radical forces that do not do this, causing these views to appear fringe. Rightist thinking in America has increased due to the social conditions and buildup of business influence over politics and the increasingly stagnant political establishment caused by mass apathy and career politics. The left isn't dead, it's just disenfranchised and fragmented and the voice of the right is always louder around these parts. As common knowledge stands, the louder side with the stronger will would more often seem stronger than their quieter or more compromising opponents.
 
#3
The U.S. has a long history of Socialism, Unionism and Anarchism, but nowadays these terms are portrayed with utter contempt and shunned away as fringe ideologies. Even in the political scene, The Left are predominantly Liberal and not really Socialist in the proper sense. The U.S. has shifted so far to the right as such that if Henry A. Wallace were to live in 2011, people would condemn him as outright Communist. Yet, how did it reach to the point that it is today?

This dullness of vision regarding the importance of the general welfare to the individual is the measure of the failure of our schools and churches to teach the spiritual significance of genuine democracy.
Henry A. Wallace

I'd chalk it up to our long struggle with the Soviet Union.

Communism was marked up not only as a threat to the USA, but also as a Godless nation. This made communism a target of both nationalistic derision, but also religious derision. Both groups (nationalists and ultra-religious individuals) tend to be ignorant, which could lead them down this faulty logic.

1. Russia is a communist nation
2. Communism is Anti American and Godless
3. Therefore all communists are Anti-American and godless

The conservatives probably took full advantage of those sentiments to strawman any liberal position as "communist" which would inevidably lead to the liberals fleeing such a designation, which would cause a gradual shift to the right of the left.
 

Kaze Araki

Libertarian Communist
#4
I don't consider these forces as fringe as the rest of society may consider. The way I view it is that these forces have too many differences among one another, leaving them divided and they are spread out amongst society. A good number of them, aware of their political reality probably throw their lot in with the force that claims to be left in America - The official liberal establishment - simply because their own views aren't in enough momentum by their eyes. It's mostly the more radical forces that do not do this, causing these views to appear fringe. Rightist thinking in America has increased due to the social conditions and buildup of business influence over politics and the increasingly stagnant political establishment caused by mass apathy and career politics. The left isn't dead, it's just disenfranchised and fragmented and the voice of the right is always louder around these parts. As common knowledge stands, the louder side with the stronger will would more often seem stronger than their quieter or more compromising opponents.
I won't hide the fact that I have tremendous disdain and paranoia when it comes to imagining working together with the Communists.

I'd chalk it up to our long struggle with the Soviet Union.

Communism was marked up not only as a threat to the USA, but also as a Godless nation. This made communism a target of both nationalistic derision, but also religious derision. Both groups (nationalists and ultra-religious individuals) tend to be ignorant, which could lead them down this faulty logic.

1. Russia is a communist nation
2. Communism is Anti American and Godless
3. Therefore all communists are Anti-American and godless

The conservatives probably took full advantage of those sentiments to strawman any liberal position as "communist" which would inevidably lead to the liberals fleeing such a designation, which would cause a gradual shift to the right of the left.
Undoubtedly, the Soviet dictatorship had tarnished Socialism as such that the stain will be there forever, especially in the US. Therefore Socialism = Communism.
 
#5
Undoubtedly, the Soviet dictatorship had tarnished Socialism as such that the stain will be there forever, especially in the US. Therefore Socialism = Communism.
Especially when ideological propagandists benefit from confusing the terms in the eyes of the public. :-\
 
#6
I won't hide the fact that I have tremendous disdain and paranoia when it comes to imagining working together with the Communists.
Is this acknowledging what I was saying or stating against it? The flow of your sentence puts me into a bit of confusion. Please clarify your stance.
 

Kaze Araki

Libertarian Communist
#7
I don't see any possibility for me to work together with the Maoist, Leninist or Stalinist.
The ideological gap is just too fundamental.
 
#8
I don't see any possibility for me to work together with the Maoist, Leninist or Stalinist.
The ideological gap is just too fundamental.
That makes more sense.

But yeah, it is my realization that the true left isn't fringe, it's just too dis-unified and disenfranchised as a whole. The forces of the genuine right have differences amongst each other but not near as much as the left and it's good at playing on the apathy of the citizenry and on top of this it's loud and projects itself strong through media outlets and general loudness and entrenchment. Rightism doesn't have an actual majority as there are plenty of moderate ideas out there as well. there's just more people per rightest group who are in support of one another. The left on the other hand either forms into shaky coalitions, they don't get along, or they are disenfranchised and just throw in their lot with the establishment "liberal" left.
 

Kaze Araki

Libertarian Communist
#9
Historically speaking, the demise of the
Anarchists in Europe (Russia and Spain) can be attributed to the Communists backstabbing.

The Right on the other hand, is a collection of incoherent ideologies if I may say. We can see that those Conservatives are pro-life but also pro-death penalty and abhors general welfare at the same time. They favor individualism but also always looking for the opportunity to dilute Evangelical Christianity into the State, and opposing gay marriage at the same time. Their position is so contradictory as such that they just make no sense at all (except for a small amount of
Libertarians). This anecdote summed up the fantasy world of the Conservative Right; a tea bagger yelled at a town hall, "Obama, hands off my Medicare!"​
 
#10
Incoherent as rightist ideologies may be, they're more capable of coming together for political reasons. They support one another on multiple levels and it's really just the most extreme rightists that are easily annoying to the rest. A good example is how Anarcho-Capitalists aren't very well liked. At the same time the big-bureaucracy imperialist-capitalist ideologies are also looked down upon even by the modern right. The mainstream rightist forces have always favored weaker or less prevalent government but had to keep policy of strong-enough government due to the demands of the last century. Two rightists will support each other in their differences if it involves common ground - which it more often does.

As for the demise of leftism, I've honestly attributed it to two centuries of reactionary forces which did everything in their power to fight down the influence atop any backstabbing that may have gone on within their general range.
 

Kaze Araki

Libertarian Communist
#11
I think the key power of the Left is in the Unions, but Reagan systematically destroy Union's bargaining power. Nowadays, Unions are just pawns for the Democratic party.
 
#12
I think the key power of the Left is in the Unions, but Reagan systematically destroy Union's bargaining power. Nowadays, Unions are just pawns for the Democratic party.
If you look at the difference between Labor campaign contributions to corporate ones, it paints a pretty clear picture as to the political influence of both groups.

They started out relatively even. . . now I know the corporations take the campaign contribution contest by a landslide.
 

Kaze Araki

Libertarian Communist
#13
If you look at the difference between Labor campaign contributions to corporate ones, it paints a pretty clear picture as to the political influence of both groups.

They started out relatively even. . . now I know the corporations take the campaign contribution contest by a landslide.
The sad thing is, even though Unions were one of the primary forces behind Obama's clear path to presidency, their interests were not even protected by the administration. Remember Wisconsin? Where was Obama back then?

As for the demise of leftism, I've honestly attributed it to two centuries of reactionary forces which did everything in their power to fight down the influence atop any backstabbing that may have gone on within their general range.
The Left (as in Socialism) is still pretty much alive in Europe. I was referring to the Anarchists demise as a political force in the hand of the Bolsheviks and Lister.
 

-lexus-

Visions of Hell
#14
The demise of the left. I believe Tony Judt held a very interesting last speech/lecture about this and some of its reasons before he died.

From what I gathered from it, is that he believes it has two reasons. First reason is that the people who knew the importance of having a social security system are all dead or dying. They were the people that witnessed the great depression and such. They are dead and we now have a generation in power that only knows economic growth and does not know how bad things can become. They havent witnessed it, they only know the stories. Which is easy to dismiss when everything is constantly booming.

And the second reason is our singular focus on the economy. Everything is measured in economic gain or loss. Economic growth is the most important thing any country is focusing on. And that means that people who do not contribute enough to this economy, are being seen as bothersome, lazy, stupid and a general pain in the ass no one will miss if they were to drop dead this instant. A men's worth is measured by his contribution to the economy. The left generally tries to look after the people who do not contribute as much to the economy for various reasons because the left inherently believes that a humans live is worth more then just his economic contribution. The right on the other hand, only cares for those who contribute and can look after themselves. So, the left is caring for the persons we dont want to take care off because in our minds and our way of thinking, it is caring for the people that should not be cared for. Making the left the guys that arent much better then that worthless scum they are trying to take care off.

What I find interesting is why Christian parties so often side with the right wingers. To me it seems that the whole doctrine of Christianity should embrace that of socialism. You know, Jesus taking care of the weak and feeding the poor, helping the downtrodden. Instead they side with the guys that dont care about poor people and that actively seek to protect only rich people.