Pall Over The Land

I have this strange sense like I’m back in the 30ies and there is an overwhelming feeling of sadness in the land as if something has been lost. I think what has been lost is any kind of civility in our political discourse. Political discourse has always had a lunatic fringe that carried things to extremes. There were plenty of hate to go around during the struggles of the 30ies. The dozens of Hearst Newspaper hated FDR. The political dialogue often reached a fever pitch. The thing that was fundamentally different was the presence of a powerful left that could countervail the right. That gave the victims of the depression a real voice. The unemployed had the “Unemployment Councils” lead by Israel Amter and acknowledged communist but a most capable organizer.

Amter was able to bring together thousands of the victims of the economic crisis in city after city getting them to make demands on the governments from the precincts the Cities States and right on to Washington. Yes, working people were the victims but they were able to have a voice through their organizations. Then there was a powerful Labor Movement that used its organized strength to join the battle for a “better world.” All of this lead to the creation of what is known today as, “The Safety Net.” Home Relief Unemployment Insurance, Social Security, Wages and Hours Act etc. All of these reforms came with a real struggle on the part of the victims of the “Depression.” It was the struggles that involved millions of citizens that kept us from sliding into the kind of pall that I sense has now enveloped the land.

There is no comparison between our present situation and the 1930ies. For all good intensive purposes, at the present time there is no organized left in this country. Oh yes there are some small groups here and there as well as some left publications like “The Nation,” “American Prospect” or “the Progressive” that are making a valiant attempts to keep a left leaning spirit alive. As for any real organization? There just ain’t none and that includes what is left of the Labor Movement. Not much. So what’s this got to do with the “Pall” over the land?

The ideas, the philosophy, the causes as represented by our two major parties centrists gets to be revolutionized by the orthodoxy on the Republican right. For example the the pro-life idea the life begins at conception can be argued about. But when the extreme orthodox take it over they believe in blocking access to clinics or shooting doctors who perform abortions is “the work of scripture” they are Jihad terrorists. That’s what orthodoxy lead to.

Most unfortunate in our times is the acquisition of a major television network by the Australian Ruppert Murdock. That Network is in full throttle support of the most avowed right wing nuts out there. Yes I am referring to Glenn Beck and many of his cronies on the Fox network. Listening to Beck raving about the “secret codes” of the “progressives” where he admonishes his viewers to beware of the term “social justice as it is a code for progressives to take over the government.” To any rational person this sounds like pretty cuckoo stuff. Yet I am reminded of all the tin horn fascists in the thirties who pedaled the exact same scare em to death stuff as a way to power. In the fifties it was MaCarthyi who was the master of this scare tactic as a way to gain control of the body politic.

It became clear to me during the health care debate that the scare tactic was once again out in full force. Now while it didn’t manage to defeat the legislation it has created a deep pall of fear that is effecting how people conceive of the public good. We are losing any compassion we had for each other in this endless meat grinder of propaganda of hate being churned out of the Fox “News network.”
The Tea Party folks have stolen the Dems thunder against Wall Street. Can you believe that? Yes I can in the same way that the Nazis took over the word socialist and called themselves “The National Socialist Party.” And then there’s the demonization of Black and Latino Congressmen, calling them N------ because they support the Health Care bill. All civility is being lost as a result of the takeover of the Republican Party by the extreme ORTHODOX right.

The present danger in the US body politic comes solely from the right. Unfortunately there is no left that might have been a countervailing force from the left to stop the cuckoos. They have the field all to themselves and that’s what makes it so scary. And once again we are confronted with the question, “can the center hold.” That's also the source of the Pall Cloud that has engulfed the land.