The socialist/progressive divide

Some people will not join coalitions to achieve their political goals no matter how useful the coalition might prove. The case applies to the socialist/progressive divide on the left.

I am often struck by the sameness of the socialist and progressive critiques of conservative policies when I visit socialist and progressive news sources and commentaries. If presented with the raw text and no identifying author or organization, I can’t tell you where it came from.

When presented with abstract principles and a philosophy as to how to correct conservative policies, the differences appear. Things turn murky again when concrete and specific policies are proposed. Sometimes that is because no concrete or practical policy is ever proposed, at least within the current political framework we are constrained to operate under.

You, dear reader, are not going to read any long essay on this blog about the matter. However, as cases arise, I hope to point some of them out.

Suffice it to say, the conservative agenda rolls merrily along crushing everything in its path. Scoring theoretical points might be intellectually satisfying, but that doesn’t help much stopping the latest, almost daily, conservative policy victory. You can’t call conservatives incompetent when they always win.

The dam has more than a few leaks in it. Saying you will build a new and bigger damn in the future doesn’t stem the flow of water that threatens to deluge you now. You can’t build a new dam after you have already drowned.