On Progressives

A little off of what I would normally talk about, but I'd like to discuss the reasons that I shall never again proclaim myself to be a progressive.

Although I would never associate myself with any far right (or even right of center) political parties, I also find myself confused as to what, if anything, I should associate myself with. The Blogosphere of the left? Netroots? Cable news? Non-mainstream media? There are only so many options on the left without becoming borderline insane.

In the spring of 2010, I had the opportunity to visit my brother who helped organize a guest speaker for his university's Democrat club. Who did they invite AND pay to speak? None other than Amy Goodman of DemocracyNOW!. While I had never heard of Ms. Goodman, I kept an open mind and was eager to hear her ideas and intellect on the world around us and her experiences.

But what did I find? The textbook example of an "America-hating liberal progressive". I honestly didn't think it existed, but she managed to convince me that it does really exist. Rather than focus on the recent accomplishments in Congress that the Democrats have done (and we can argue on whether they are accomplishments or not all day long - but it's still very different from what we've seen before), she decided to attack former President George W. Bush, his cabinet, and the Congress from 1994 to 2006. Granted, I knew we would see something like that - I myself haven't gotten offer the Bush administration. However, I listened and kept my ears and mind open in hopes it would move past the belittling of what will go down as one of the lesser presidencies.

She continued on and on about minutia surrounding where Donald Rumsfeld lived, who John Ashcroft and Dick Cheney associate themselves with, and yadda yadda yadda. Is this really important? No.

Then she approached the subject of Haiti's disaster at the beginning of the year. All we heard about was how terrible the crisis had been handled and how the US ignores other countries when we should be helping them and how terrible we are and how our politics are stupid and blah blah blah. Uh...what about the US? What about taking care of ourselves at home before going abroad? When did we get ordained as the world administrator who must repair any problems? Are you ever going to be happy with what the president does?

This is just how frustrated I get with the radical left. You ask for this, this, that, and that, and if it's not done NOW, well the radical left will just need a new candidate. Jeez...give the guy a break, he inherited a mess that has to be cleaned up!

There's more about Ms. Goodman's visit that troubled me. For example, her support of Norman Finklestein, who you can all read about yourselves. I didn't like anything this man has had to say/publish.

I admire Ms. Goodman's courage to stand up for what she believes in, but it reaches a point where it's just as bad as Rush Limbaugh and Glenn Beck. When you constantly need new things to bitch about, we don't actually "progress" to anything...we just get stuck in the mud.