An idea has formulated in my mind about the genesis of today's left-wing, political "regular". And when I say "regular", I mean irregular. But, I am speaking of your average left-leaning schmo walking around America. You know, the kind person the MSM never fails to find on a street corner who is ready to spout off with every Bush-bashing cliche' they have heard on ABC, The View, MTV, etc. Now the genesis, or perhaps synthesis, of mainstream leftist thought is an amalgam or mish-mash of three factors which has taken decades to mesh.
First off it is easy to find the spark of modern quasi-socialism, it began in 1932 with the election of FDR. His governmental/social programs still inspire leading liberals to this day. The main thrust of his programs has shown or appears to show that our federal government can solve a citizen's everyday problems. The government can find you a job, feed you, provide you with retirement benefits, or more succinctly take care of you. FDR blamed the ills befalling America after the 1929 crash and resulting depression on, " the self-interest basis of capitalism". Modern democrats are thankful that their "godfather", restored the power of the federal government so they may regulate, control, tax, and spend all under the auspices of "restoration". Contemporary teachers will never tell their students about all the "alphabet programs", that did not work, or that military/defense spending in response to a burgeoning unrest in Europe helped or perhaps caused the economic turn around of the '40's not social programs. Echoes and pains still throb and resonate from FDR's creation of the Social Security administration, unemployment compensation, collective bargaining, and all-around governmental regulation.
But, liberals would not want you to believe or even read that any of those programs were and are anything other than positive and indispensable. If that were not the case then how could the New Deal Coalition have survived through the '60's and how could it still inspire blue state candidates today? Well, that belief in the "big government" party has promoted itself well, which brings us to factor number two. LBJ was perhaps the beneficiary of the eventual break up of the Coalition that saw a 48% increase in black voters pulling the handle for (D) from 1944 to 1964. LBJ renamed it "the Great Society", but if one looks closely it was the same old social, program-forming guide to political power. The idea of course is give the people more of a reason to rely on their federal representatives. Keep them happy by taking personal accountability and responsibility out of their hands. And even better if we make the people think that it is their right to be provided for and be coddled. LBJ initiated and saw the legal development of Medicare, Medicaid, Food Stamps, and the foundation of the National Endowments for the Humanities and the Arts. The last two are what our tax dollars should be spent on, artists and humanists, right? So from LBJ and FDR we got at least two more lines of deduction on our paychecks, and that is not even including income taxes.
The first two showed and further trained individuals to have faith in the government to provide for their needs. Your average citizen saw that it was necessary to spend 10 to 20% of their paycheck before they even deposit it. With the passing of 70 years it is almost ingrained in our national genes. These governmental, social programs are part of national identity now. How could we do without them, right? Add all those cozy, warm feelings that big government provides to the idea that we could and should change our country's international policies, no matter what the outcome. Of course, what was added to social, governmental programs was leftist activism and its identification in mainstream society. The "New Left", as historians call it inspired by far leftists abroad, (Castro, Mao, Trotsky, etc), saw the apparent futility in our involvement in Vietnam and even the Cold War. It seemed our tax dollars were meant to be spent on institutions of caring but absolutely not on institutions that dealt with defense. The left learned they could march and that media outlets were their friends. The left saw the new found power of the so-called "fourth estate" of our political system, and in turn the press and MSM found a perfect union with the left. By 1975, when the war was defunded by congress, the left felt they changed American foreign policy, and they were a forced to be reckoned with because their buddies in the media said so. So every dirty little hippie, every silly little flower child, and every member of the counter culture felt empowered. And if they survived to maturity and adulthood, these people in turn became, literally the mainstream. The mainstream in a lot of state governments, definitely in colleges and universities, and most definitely in the media.
The formation of contemporary leftists and even left-leaning centrists in our society is the result of these three major societal influences; FDR and LBJ's governmental, societal programs, and the social dynamic of self-perceived importance granted children of the sixties by the media. It is an interesting duality where the federal government is both viewed as a parental figure who cares, and an evil entity controlled by unfeeling capitalists.
No wonder we cannot understand them.
