Has the Left Surrendered? - BillMoyers.com [View all]

[MattSh]

This post originally appeared at OurFuture.org.



Harper's magazine's March 2014 cover. (Illustration: Tim Bower)

The relationship between the left and the Democratic Party is central to Reed’s argument, which might be summarized as follows:

1. The Democratic Party has shifted dramatically to the right.

2. The left — or what remains of it — has come to identify itself with the success of the Democratic Party.

3. This has led to a rise in social issues and identity politics at the expense of the economic questions which are (or should be) central to any genuinely left-wing movement.

As if to underscore these points, new poll results show that an increasing number of Americans describe themselves as “liberal” while, simultaneously, 80 percent of Democratic voters reportedly want Hillary Clinton to run for president — despite the fact that she has yet to state her position on many critical issues of the day, from regulatory reform to tax policy to education and despite the fact that she’s closely associated with the regressive economic policies of the first Clinton administration.

These figures suggest that Mr. Reed is onto something.

http://billmoyers.com/2014/02/28/has-the-left-surrendered/