General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsAutumn
(44,984 posts)brush
(53,743 posts)three times then show photos of AOC, a self-avowed democratic socialist.
She can joke about it but she needs to be distancing herself from it as it hurts the party far from her deep blue district.
ck4829
(35,039 posts)brush
(53,743 posts)Hell, most of them can't tell socialism from fascism. All they know is what they're told"socialism is bad" and AOC has declared herself a democratic socialist, which actually is double bad because it's two words they hate. Democratic and socialist.
She made a mistake calling herself that. How she fixes that, I don't know. But with that label she can't get elected anywhere but a deep, deep blue district.
Too bad she followed Sanders in calling herself that as she has tremendous potential.
Social Democrat sounds better.
ahoysrcsm
(787 posts)I back the Democratic Party, I am not a 'Democratic Socialist' nor a 'Social Democrat' (sic)
JonLP24
(29,322 posts)Link to tweet
She doesn't mention AOC or Bernie Sanders and apparently what she thinks is different from their agenda. Notice how she says "fake news" when inconvenient facts are mentioned to her.
Whatever people still blame AOC. Spanburger did a great job of dividing the party.
brush
(53,743 posts)Most repugs don't know socialism from fascism. They're low info voters and dumb as hell.
Captain Zero
(6,785 posts)nt
radius777
(3,635 posts)and the GOP has used it for a generation as a dogwhistle.
This woman is a wannabe who would not be considered white by most RW whites who would deport her in a second if they could.
Whether AOC used the word 'socialist' or not - it doesn't matter. Even Bill Clinton and Obama were called socialists.
LenaBaby61
(6,973 posts)Yeah, I have friends who live down in Shellman/Blakely Georgia, and the ramp up of the "Socialiasm" boogeyman is ALREADY rearing it's head already. In fact, the friend living in Blakely got something in her mail about "The Socialist Democrat party...," and I told her to stop right there, I get it.
AOC really needs to shut up now about that socialism joke thing, especially since that socialism boogeyman still has power away from HER deep blue district. James Clyburn said that using the term defund the police isn't a good term to use either, yet I still see some Dems using that term. Dems and their messaging is HORRIBLE and likely not to change, and the corporate media is happy to repeat what Dems say IE: Defund the police & the Democratic party & Socialism 😣
JonLP24
(29,322 posts)I don't just say I support BLM, I also support their policies.
I favor it and I live in blue district, elected Mark Kelly & Joe Biden. I don't care if the Southeast doesn't support it. It is a local issue anyway. LA recently voted to "defund" and it passed.
LenaBaby61
(6,973 posts)Neither do I, because like you I live in a DEEP blue area (Los Angeles County).
But what Clyburn was saying, and I agree, is that talk like that isn't helpful where HE is although Georgia is changing slowly/AA's got out the vote (Thanks to Stacey's herculean efforts in registering 800,000 more voters) to turn Georgia blue, because as I mentioned a friend in Shellman Georgia's already getting the socialism/Dems mailings in head of that run-off in January 2021.
Captain Zero
(6,785 posts)Being her reason. So if she almost did, how many others actually did vote for Trump for that reason?
And it is an EMOTIONAL issue for her since she has grandsons who are LEOs.
Lots of people are related to and friends of police officers they know.
I thought it was a dumb phrase the first time I heard it and knew it would lose votes. The thing is once it got going Trump and the Republicans repeated it ABOUT the Democrats hundreds of times more than any Democrat ever said it.
We really can't hand them bone-headed stuff to repeat because they will repeat it through a bullhorn over and over.
maxsolomon
(33,252 posts)i'm curious, as i live in a deep blue bubble.
Bettie
(16,076 posts)and show pictures of Nancy Pelosi. Saw it this cycle.
And Joe Biden.
And literally every Democrat out there.
brush
(53,743 posts)It costs us seats.
TDale313
(7,820 posts)We get so scared theyll be mean to us we take every attack they make to heart and bend over backwards to fit their framing. Its a fools errand.
TDale313
(7,820 posts)It only seems to be more conservative or moderate Dems from Red or Purple areas that we need to be patient with and let represent their districts. Her District loves her. A large chunk of the country love her. And yet she and the squad are constantly being told they need to watch their tone.
LenaBaby61
(6,973 posts)Last edited Wed Nov 18, 2020, 08:15 PM - Edit history (1)
At least until THIS next Senatorial run-off in Georgia on Jan. 5th, is over, because if we don't get thost two Senate seats, Biden won't have an agenda, and many in the corporate media won't be as 'understanding' if he can't get anything done because of Republicans. Many in the corporate media were mostly tepid to call tRump a liar, and just look at that THUG tRump, whose currently destroying everything on his way out, making it more difficult for Biden to hit the ground running in curbing Covid-19. You gotta be a rotten fucker, soulless, to sit back golfing/tweeting/and eating to watch 251K and more DIE when you could have done something about Covid-19. At least let us try to get those two seats, with Kamala being the tie-break vote we will have so Joe/Kamala can get MANY things done instead of going into the hell hole of having MoscowMitch being Sen. Majority leader again, and he already said laughingly that he'll block EVERY one of Biden's cabinet appointments, and if he gets a shot at appointing a justice on the the high court, that scotus BETTER be centrist or center right. As I mentioned in a post in this thread, my friend who lives in Shellman Ga. got a mailer already talking about "The Democrat Socialist party."
Autumn
(44,984 posts)Last edited Wed Nov 18, 2020, 08:13 PM - Edit history (1)
Anybody whining about "The Democrat Socialist party" like your friend in GA is is not going to change. MoscowMitch is not going to change and nothing AOC says is changing that. But she does have a young following that will appeal to voters elsewhere and she can change some of those young people into Dem voters.
LenaBaby61
(6,973 posts)is not going to change."
I'm filling in blanks for you here ...
My friend is a long-time, AA Dem voter of 92, mostly living alone, whose long deceased aunt/daughter were injured during their walk trying to cross the Edmund Pettus Bridge in 1965, plus she's been living in Georgia all of her life as had her great-grandparents on BOTH sides who were slaves/turned share croppers, and yes she's alarmed about "All of these bogus 'socialism' mailers in her mailbox" she's told me she's received this whole voting season, not just during this anticipated run-off in Jan. She knows what's at stake with this run-off election for those 2 senate seats. She knows that "Those Republicans won't do a damn thing for anybody if they get the Senate." She remembers being a teen when Hitler was leader of Germany during the 1940's, she knew what a fascist was at 17 (The Jewish people she worked for baby-sitting their children explained to her what one was), and she see's told me many times how tRump and these Republicans act almost like Hitler and his people. She's lived in Ga. during a time when you couldn't drink from elegant white's only water fountains. Called Ni%%er, Ni&&er, Ni$$er by a child taunting her as a 21 year old grown woman, so that they could have the WHOLE sidewalk knowing that she couldn't say anything back to that child or check her racist mom who was looking at her in the face and laughing. My Friend is still very sharp mentally for her age and still lives mostly alone in Shellman, Ga. most of her life whose late aunt and her daughter were injured during what should have been their Bloody Sunday walk across the Edmund Pettus Bridge in 1965.
AOC has the right to say what she wants, but I'm sure she's never weathered what my friend has. White's only water fountain and Jim Crow in a segregated Georgia. My friend has EVERY right @ 92 to say what she wants to. She sees how African-Americans votes are being taken away from them again in what should be an enlightened 21st century. She's elderly but she knows what's going on with tRump and the voter disenfranchisement aka new Jim Crow that they're trying to re-start again. She should, she lived through it, and she's lived long enough in her state of Georgia to have more say so there than what she calls a "Somebody who needs hush right now." I agree with her. AOC can do all the making fun of socialism AFTER Dems secure those 2 Senate seats. She's up in a safe NY. My friend is down in Georgia, and NO she's not whining, she can say what the hell she wants to, because she's seen and lived it ALL down South.
Finally, my friend was livid when she saw John Lewis heckled loudly by what she called "Damn fools in the our party," on the night Hillary Clinton was nominated for President.
Autumn
(44,984 posts)socialism, and she's been elected TWICE on that.
LenaBaby61
(6,973 posts)I agree, especially when you live in a SAFE deep, blue district in NY, you can do what you please.
Autumn
(44,984 posts)LenaBaby61
(6,973 posts)Of course she's won twice, because she's in a DEEP blue state/district in NY.
I think she's smart enough to KNOW that giving thuglicans a chance to put her picture and Pelosi's picture on mailers where they look 'crazy' and calling them "Democrat Socialists" won't work down in a place like Shellman, Ga. You didn't see Stacey Abrams taking that tact as she helped pull Georgia across the line and into the Dem column, and helping to give Biden the presidency.
Autumn
(44,984 posts)I personally would not have bet the farm on it going blue this time had another Republican other than Trump been on the ticket and had it not been for Abrams. I also think Jen Jordan was a big factor.
Demsrule86
(68,471 posts)Socialism is not supported in this country...and the fear of it is one of the reasons we lost Florida...IMHO. One can say what one wants...the question is always should one say it?
radius777
(3,635 posts)as she helps to push the overton window on this issue. There's nothing wrong with democratic socialism - many of the institutions of society like Social Security and Medicare fit that description. America is a hybrid of capitalism and socialism, as are most advanced countries.
Voters look to see who appears strong and confident on their positions, ie who control the frame, and we often do a poor job at this - that's why we lose.
Bettie
(16,076 posts)based on what they say. There is NEVER any time for our message because we're so freaking busy trying to fit it into their framing.
Mariana
(14,854 posts)Biophilic
(3,632 posts)I always liked her, but didn't really follow too much. More and more I'm finding her worth not just hearing, but actually looking for things she's said or written. For the last 4 years I've mostly just tried to keep my head down and not get so anxious or depressed that I had trouble functioning. Now, this summer and this fall I'm actually feeling like things might shift around and it's not just because of the election. It's because of the woman like Kamala, AOC, Stacey, and Gretchen and her crew. The woman are tough and willing to stand up for themselves and their constituents.
The more I hear from them, the better I feel. They just don't bullshit around.
Response to Biophilic (Reply #4)
Post removed
brooklynite
(94,363 posts)JonLP24
(29,322 posts)octoberlib
(14,971 posts)whod bankrupt and shut down all the hospitals in SC by imposing M4A. Ridiculous but It worked.
People down here dont give a flying fuck if he was a lobbyist. That kind of messaging only works in D +30 districts.
LenaBaby61
(6,973 posts)That kind of messaging only works in D +30 districts."
SO true. It doesn't work in a small place like Shellman Georgia where you have thuglicans representing it, and where you have 2 law-breaking, racist, low-life, insider-trading pieces of scum representing it, as Shellman still went RED.
But AOC I guess really doesn't CARE about the folks in Shellman, Ga., and the fact that they're still represented by racist, right-winged pigs in Ga.
Thank God for Stacey Abrams who really helped Biden win Georgia and where she registered 800K across that state that bought Ga. into the Blue column and into Biden's win column. Stacey Abrams was on with Ali Ali Velshi, and I don't hear Stacey talking about socialism, she strains to avoid that. No, she's talking about how winning those two senate seats in Ga., are extremely important, and about how MoscowMitch/Perdue/Loeffler stand in their way of receiving unemployment benefits. Perdue/Loeffler/MoscowMitch don't give a shit about Covid-19 or about how many die across this country or about how their losing their homes, running through their little savings etc.
Stacey KNOWS all things Georgia, and you won't hear her making fun of being called a socialist, especially not down in newly blue Georgia.
LenaBaby61
(6,973 posts)Calling Jamie a socialist worked in South Carolina (I have relatives in Bishopville). We know WHAT SC still is unfortunately.
And even more scary is that all of the hospitals in South Carolina ARE already closed, and downtown Bishopville looks like a ghost town, and Jamie repeatedly spoke about that and about other counties in SC, but the socialism tag on Jamie worked like a gem. Graham doesn't give a shit about the state he 'represents,' nor does he care about folks dying from Covid-19 because that clown is onboard with tRump, with his lips firmly kissing the murderous ass of his buddy tRump, and since he's gone to interfering into elections in states other than SC. He's a fascist living in SC who only cares about himself, tRump and about making the lives of Dems and those who need help, even republicans who voted for him, more miserable.
octoberlib
(14,971 posts)but the right wing messaging flooded everything. Its hard in red states.
LenaBaby61
(6,973 posts)You know they had to be good, because I saw many of them here in DEEP blue Los Angeles County.
He came across as someone who pulled himself up by HIS bootstraps, although many whites think that they only can do that. He seemed very heartfelt, sincere whenever I saw him interviewed, and he has a beautiful family (his wife and children are adorable). Jamie's someone who KNOWS the needs of the people in SC.
Unlike that horses ass Graham who was on Faux and on various television events begging, crying, almost sobbing, turning red pleading for $5.00, because my opponent has all of this liberal money coming in from outside of South Carolina. He came off just like one of those disgraced evangelists who come on television begging, crying, almost sobbing, turning red pleading for monies before midnight. And him coming into the hallway turning very red again when questioned by a reporter on WHY he felt the need to contact the conservative sos in Ga. (WHO was extremely offended) about the way he conducts all things ballot/signatures in that guys state, especially in the places where there are predominantly African-American voters.
Graham is a cancer--One sick ass fool.
George II
(67,782 posts)Demsrule86
(68,471 posts)amused.The word socialism should not be used by any Democrat.
qazplm135
(7,447 posts)it's to mock obviously, but it ignores the real danger the fear of socialism is. It cost Biden Florida. It probably cost us a Senate seat or two.
NurseJackie
(42,862 posts)Cuthbert Allgood
(4,907 posts)Biden is far from being a socialist, but it "cost" him Florida when it isn't even a real thing. Stop blaming this on AOC.
qazplm135
(7,447 posts)I'm trying to understand the purpose of her tweet which appears to mock fears of socialism.
Which as you say, cost Biden Florida. So perhaps mocking isn't the way to go?
AmericanCanuck
(1,102 posts)and saying it is more important than winning elections with a winning message.
Cuthbert Allgood
(4,907 posts)that is trotted out for people to make money and win elections and that needs to stop.
But, hey, keep punching left. That should work really well for us.
qazplm135
(7,447 posts)You call it nonsense, the Republicans call it a winning message.
Cuthbert Allgood
(4,907 posts)Nothing at all wrong with that tactic.
qazplm135
(7,447 posts)Let's ignore messaging that's affecting a third of Latinos in critical states and driving Whites as well.
Because it's "Republican messaging."
Don't try and counter it or address it, just mock it.
Brilliant!
Cuthbert Allgood
(4,907 posts)I remember four years ago when people indicated that they didn't want to vote for Clinton because they wanted someone more progressive and overwhelmingly the response was that those people were stupid and needed to just vote for Clinton. NOW, when people are saying that our messaging needs to be more conservative because Cubans don't like the word "socialism" because they don't understand it and won't vote for a clearly not-socialist, instead of being their fault, we need to change our messaging and positions just to make them happy. It's almost like you just want the party to move right and are going to switch where the blame lies (ignorant voters vs progressives) depending on which one causes a shift right.
qazplm135
(7,447 posts)But like AOC keep your head in the sand that it's just something small to be mocked, not something to be countered.
Cuthbert Allgood
(4,907 posts)People need to be educated on what socialism is, how we have elements of it here already, and how those things being presented by the Dem platform are not the evils of Castro and the USSR.
What we do not need to do is jump on the "sOciALism iZ tHe bADzz" train. Let's actually be the party of liberalism and let people know that those things they like (based on lots of polling) are what the Republicans want to scare them with then they talk of socialism in the US.
Or, hey, go after AOC. That seems to be the option you want to take.
qazplm135
(7,447 posts)She's not perfect. She is as prone to being criticized as anyone else.
And when she mocks this she is not "addressing it."
She's pretending it's some small thing that only stupid people believe and glossing over it.
And we DO need to understand that a large number of people in fact DO believe that "socialism is the bad" and figure out a way to promote progressive policies and explain why they aren't "socialism." We need to explain that we in fact do like capitalism, just managed to curb it's excesses.
Talking up socialism is a losing path. Defending it is a losing path. Mocking the fear of it, as AOC has, is a losing path.
But hey, let's not worry about winning elections, let's just pretend AOC never says or does anything that isn't perfect, and protect her at all costs.
mtnsnake
(22,236 posts)Cuthbert Allgood
(4,907 posts)She's mocking those that use it as the boogie man. You know, the thing we both seem to agree exists. And the fact that she brings in corporate lobbyists means she isn't glossing over it and/or saying it's some "small thing." In case you haven't paid attention, she has a huge problem with lobbyists.
If people believe it's bad, we both seem to agree that the solution is to educate. The solution isn't to tell AOC to stop fighting the fight she wants to fight.
"Taking up socialism is a losing path." Who's doing that? She is 1. taking up progressive policies that Dems believe in; and 2. trying to fight those that don't want people educated and use it as a tool.
Nobody wants to "protect her at all costs" but this is a Dem site and we aren't supposed to be going after them. Hell, Manchin gets love here because he is a Dem. Afford AOC (who, by the way, is WAY more liberal and progressive than Manchin) the same. And before we slide into "Manchin is doing what he needs to do to get elected," so is AOC. And, frankly, she supports Trump a whole hell of a lot less than Manchin.
qazplm135
(7,447 posts)Mocking is a pointless and useless exercise. It's impotent. It doesn't recognize the problem.
THAT'S what people are criticizing her for. A snarky tweet that doesn't recognize or address the problem.
She isn't "taking the fight" with that tweet.
This is all a reflexive oh we have to protect AOC! I don't have any need to protect her or Manchin when they do or say something stupid or unhelpful. Or anyone else. Manchin has his own problems. Raising him is simply more of a "must protect AOC" move.
betsuni
(25,380 posts)Last edited Thu Nov 19, 2020, 05:32 AM - Edit history (1)
By not doing so, it means both sides. Which Democrats are corrupted by lobbyists? And if it's referring to voters who didn't vote for Democrats because they're afraid of socialism and believed that Republican messaging, I thought we weren't supposed to make fun of people who vote against their own self-interest.
Democrats keep being told that they're bad at messaging and to do better. I don't understand the messaging here at all.
radius777
(3,635 posts)poor outreach and messaging in the state. DU'ers who live in FL even said this, that they saw all types of GOP GOTV and anti-Dem propaganda but nothing much from our side to counter it.
The Cubans shifted more strongly over to Trump due to his harsh sanctions against Cuba more than anything else. They are also very right wing and many are sympathetic to his racism/nativism against darker skinned people, as well as his strongman persona.
We were doing poorly in many downballot races during the Obama era way before AOC came onto the scene. Obama was called a socialist, any left leaning politician (whether center-left or left) will be called socialist. That's why AOC is the solution to this, as she is a star and appealing to many young people and others, and is not afraid to fight back. We can't be afraid of our own shadows. We need to push the overton window and properly explain to people that all first world nations are a hybrid of socialism and capitalism. Otherwise we will continue to be boxed in and unable to get anything done, lest it be called 'socalist'.
qazplm135
(7,447 posts)What's her approval rating outside of progressives?
Spoiler: it's not great.
WyattKansas
(1,648 posts)Instead of using the Republican given word, socialism, simply short circuit it immediately and leave all Republicans very confused and silent by... Using the term FDR Policies instead. It will rally the country around it with even Republicans supporting it.
Republican politicians have been trying to hijack the likeness of FDR and what his policies did for the country, because they know their Republican voters LOVE FDR and what he gave this country. But Republicans can never do what FDR did, because they are for the very opposite of FDR Policies. So the Republican politicians had to invent attack words, like socialism, communist, leftist, antifa, to hurt the Democratic Party and shift the country right to undermine the FDR Policies that made the country so great to begin with. Republican politicians are under the illusion they can repeat what FDR did with their Ayn Rand values.
JudyM
(29,204 posts)What would they prefer over socialism? Their fascism?
brooklynite
(94,363 posts)WyattKansas
(1,648 posts)At times to remind Americans what we need to return to going forward with science, education, equality, and achieving the impossible. Those FDR Policies were the very same liberal and progressive policies that the socialism movement pushes for today. But by framing them as FDR Policies instead of socialism, liberal, or progressive it prevents the Republican Party from mounting attacks and name-calling of the Democratic Party and it's politicians. Because even most Republican voters love FDR and want to bring back what he began with the country, before we got derailed with the now many decades of repeated failures the Conservative/Republican shift moved us to.
Republicans simply do NOT have any counter attack to FDR Policies unless they want to call themselves Anti-American or attack FDR himself.
Dem4Life1102
(3,974 posts)will alienate many Asian and African Americans.
WyattKansas
(1,648 posts)FDR Policies. And do tell us why you think it will turn Asians and African Americans against the Democratic Party. Besides, you could say that about any political figure past and present with different segments of the population... Including different Asian groups and African American groups. Your post only made me think of tRUMP's response to Biden in one of the debates when he loudly exclaimed to Biden, 'You just lost the African American vote!'
What you completely ignored is that FDR Policies put actual laws into place and a real foundation to help ALL equally with laws and they actually protected the American People, instead of chic projects that turn larger swaths of the population against it and the Democratic Party. You know with science, facts, reality, and safety measures instead of the Wall Street mythical illusion that Republicans resurrected and the Democratic Party played along with. Once the Democratic Party gets off it's targeting of certain groups instead of building a movement with the mass population, then it will change the direction of the country for the better. And again, do explain what Americans do not view FDR Policies favorably, including Republican voters and Republican politicians... Perhaps someone who doesn't want socialist and progressive policies and favors the Wall Street mythical illusion?
By the way, the country and Democratic Party would have been a hell of a lot better off keeping Henry Wallace on his ticket, rather than being forced to change to the Wall Street's guy, Harry Truman.
Dem4Life1102
(3,974 posts)He refused to integrate the military and many African Americans were not allowed the benefits of new deal programs especially in the south. FDR also illegally imprisoned Japanese Americans during WWII.
WyattKansas
(1,648 posts)Did the Chinese and other Asian countries like FDR??? How did the Japanese feel about Harry Truman dropping atomic bombs on Japan? Your analogy seems to be a lot a cherry blossom picking to dismiss FDR from history. Why is that and why don't you agree with President-Elect Biden's view of FDR Policies?
As for African Americans in the south with new deal programs... Sounds a lot like how Obamacare did not go far enough at all and left some out. But I am sure that you will explain what actually prevented New Deal programs in the South and how many African Americans cherish their New Deal benefits today? Do also go on to tell how many African American leaders from the Civil Rights movement spoke about pushing too far too fast in fear of a blow back from the population. I'm sure the Tuskegee Airmen only happened under Truman at the end of WW II, which began pushing for the change. And please do explain how it was all on FDR to right every wrong before and after him, even though he set in place LAWS and a FOUNDATION that would pay off for all in the end for all.
Maybe you are against FDR, because you really do not like socialism and progressive ideals FDR set into the law.
Dem4Life1102
(3,974 posts)They just dont revere FDR the way white liberals do. And since he didnt lift a finger to repeal the Chinese exclusion acts until 1943, many Asian Americans feel the same. And lets not forget that many Jewish Americans think that FDR didnt do enough to save European Jews from the Holocaust.
BTW The Tuskegee Airmen were a segregated unit so they dont really help your argument.
Cuthbert Allgood
(4,907 posts)which made most of the civil rights SCOTUS cases in the 60s possible? THOSE policies. That doesn't make sense.
Dem4Life1102
(3,974 posts)Makes a lot of sense.
Cuthbert Allgood
(4,907 posts)Like Socialist and then hard stop? Democratic Socialism is not the same thing by a long shot.
JGladstone
(42 posts)--Ellen Schrecker
(Snips)
"Quantification aside, it may be helpful to look at the specific sectors of American society that McCarthyism touched. Such an appraisal, tentative though it must be, may offer some insight into the extent of the damage and into the ways in which the anti-Communist crusade influenced American society, politics, and culture. We should keep in mind, however, that McCarthyism's main impact may well have been in what did not happen rather than in what didthe social reforms that were never adopted, the diplomatic initiatives that were not pursued, the workers who were not organized into unions, the books that were not written, and the movies that were never filmed.
The most obvious casualty was the American left. The institutional toll is clear. The Communist party, already damaged by internal problems, dwindled into insignificance and all the organizations associated with it disappeared. The destruction of the front groups and the left-led unions may well have had a more deleterious impact on American politics than the decline of the party itself. With their demise, the nation lost the institutional network that had created a public space where serious alternatives to the status quo could be presented. Moreover, with the disappearance of a vigorous movement on their left, moderate reform groups were more exposed to right-wing attacks and thus rendered less effective.
In the realm of social policy, for example, McCarthyism may have aborted much-needed reforms. As the nation's politics swung to the right after World War II, the federal government abandoned the unfinished agenda of the New Deal. Measures like national health insurance, a social reform embraced by the rest of the industrialized world, simply fell by the wayside. The left liberal political coalition that might have supported health reforms and similar projects was torn apart by the anti-Communist crusade. Moderates feared being identified with anything that seemed too radical, and people to the left of them were either unheard or under attack. McCarthyism further contributed to the attenuation of the reform impulse by helping to divert the attention of the labor movement, the strongest institution within the old New Deal coalition, from external organizing to internal politicking."
"The nation's cultural and intellectual life suffered as well. While there were other reasons that TV offered a bland menu of quiz shows and westerns during the late 1950s, McCarthy-era anxieties clearly played a role. Similarly, the blacklist contributed to the reluctance of the film industry to grapple with controversial social or political issues. In the intellectual world, cold war liberals also avoided controversy. They celebrated the "end of ideology," claiming that the United States' uniquely pragmatic approach to politics made the problems that had once concerned left- wing ideologists irrelevant. Consensus historians pushed that formulation into the past and described a nation that had supposedly never experienced serious internal conflict. It took the civil rights movement and the Vietnam War to end this complacency and bring reality back in."
Brother Mythos
(1,442 posts)Nanjeanne
(4,915 posts)PufPuf23
(8,755 posts)jet assist up their ass the better to improve their ability to grift.
Hope AOC matures to Speaker of the House.
AmericanCanuck
(1,102 posts)an eyeroll and hysterical laughter. Not because it is funny.
HughBeaumont
(24,461 posts). . . while there's no limit to how far right you can go in this country. Not one single solitary limit whatsofuckingever.
And "Life's not fair" isn't an argument, it's a cop out. Double standards are doubly ridiculous.
JI7
(89,241 posts)Celerity
(43,130 posts)Link to tweet