I only get into trouble on DU when I try to get to what's real.

[1StrongBlackMan]

287. I had to read this three times to be certain you were saying what I thought I read ...

And, it appears that I read it correctly the first time; so forgive me if this comes across as an attack ... Are you insane?

If the New Deal and the Great Society legislation and regulations had remained intact, and the work that unions had been fighting and dying for since the late 1800s not been wiped away, and all the work of 100 years by progressives not been reversed by "centrist", Third Way, republican/Democrats over the past 25 years, progressives might be more receptive to the voting demographic that elected the politicians who caused it.

First, the New Deal and the Great Society legislation and regulations remain intact, and the work that unions had been fighting and dying for since the late 1800s has not been wiped away ... and fuck you, if you think you can lay the recent and current attempts to roll back the gains of the early 20th century at the feet of the Black electorate, if that's what you meant by, "the voting demographic that elected the politicians who caused it."

Yes, Black voters came out, in force, for Bill Clinton ... and so did better than half the Democratic Party, because we, all, made the electability calculation. Do you really believe the progressive darling, Jerry Brown could have beat the incumbent President, Pappy Bush? While Brown had the better platform of all the candidates in the field, Democratic or republican, the American electorate turns very, very slowly. And, after nearly 20 years of republican administrations (with a brief respite during the Carter years), a Brown Presidency was considered a race, too far ... disappointing; but, a reasonable calculation based on historical electoral politics.

Progressives, in one form or another have been fighting for black lives since black people were livestock. Progressives have been fighting to improve the quality of black lives since reconstruction. Progressives have been sacrificing their lives, metaphorically and literally since before this country existed.

We've fought a lot of fights that benefited a lot of people.

I really don't understand this chest beating and self-back slapping ... first, do you want a rhetorical cookie for doing what the left, hell ... human beings, are supposed to do? And/but more, what does that history have to do with the current "less receptiveness" towards Black Lives, now?

Make no mistake, the driving force behind BLM is, as you mention, the heart-breaking voicelessness on issues that are paramount to them/us; so, it is/was no coincidence that BLM chose the progressive forum of NRN to be heard. In my estimation, there is no better example of the promotion of that voicelessness, than Bernie's economic primacy message (sorry O'Malley, he just got caught in the cross-fire, as his campaign message is far more balanced between economic and racial interests).

If you, progressives, think Black folks should/would sit still for discussions about your purse (or, even, our purses) while we are, literally, dying in the streets, because you put, in your estimation, in enough time on the issue, you can kiss my Black ass.

When I say that, I'm not asking for thanks or for any special favor. The good that was done is gone. There is nothing left to thank previous generations for. The scars my 90 year old grandfather still has from the beatings the cops and the union busters gave him for his effort to establish worker protections were wasted. There's no more 40 hour work week, or 8 hour day, and soon, no more unions at all.

That is a bunch of facile bull shit, conspiratorial facile bullshit, at that. The decline in union membership is more traceable to unions' becoming the monster that they were born to fight AND a generation (or more) of narcissistic workers. There is NOTHING that stops workers from organizing beyond a generalized disinterest in doing the work to do so. The mechanisms and protections remain in place ... it is no more, or less difficult to organize a workplace, today, than it was in 1980. But/and, organizing is far easier today, than it was in the immediate years after union membership peaked in 1954.

But that said ... As unions grew in numbers and, therefore, influence, they became (or, were/are perceived as) hierarchical, bureaucratized, top down organizations, that lost touch with its rank and file ... which is not unusual for movements shortly after their reaching a critical mass; it happened/is happening in the (Black) Civil Rights Movement, the Feminist Movement, the LGBT Movement, La Raza Movement, etc., even as these movements continue.

Couple that with a generation (or more) of workers that buy into the immediate gratification of Meism, that have little connection to "the struggle", as they were born into its benefits. It is of no wonder that (just as with the Black Civil Rights movement) the current beneficiaries are less engaged.

The fate of the American system of government (such as it is), is not actually the most pressing matter, neither is the fate of any demographic of America's citizens.

The next election will decide the the fate of the air we breath, the water we drink, and the food we eat. The next election will decide who lives and dies on a global scale. It will be unlike anything seen in human history. It will rival an ice age in its destruction.

Oh, yeah, there's gonna be an ice age. That's on the centrists too. We told you so.

I, largely, agree here, though I see little space between the Democratic candidates on addressing climate change.

No. I, actually, don't think you are insane ... but, rather a/the product of being at the political extreme that benefits from being on the outside yelling at those that actually get things done; albeit, slowly and through pragmatic compromise.