Interesting Read From an Unlikely Source
Posted: Dec 7th, '16, 11:56
Joe Klein is generally left of center and vehemently anti-Trump, yet his column here says plenty about the left in America today. An excerpt below but read the whole column.
Style Over Substance: Why Fidel Castro’s Revolutionary Chic Was a Fraud
Joe Klein
http://time.com/4587703/style-over-subs ... s-a-fraud/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
Style Over Substance: Why Fidel Castro’s Revolutionary Chic Was a Fraud
Joe Klein
http://time.com/4587703/style-over-subs ... s-a-fraud/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
The emphasis on style over substance has been a distinguishing feature of the left for the past 50 years. Yes, of course, there was plenty of substance, but it mostly related to social issues. Abortion rights has been without question the most powerful and passionate issue when it comes to driving votes for Democrats. There has been a greater audience for civil liberties on the left than kitchen-table issues–and these have been fetishized over time. Gay rights became transgender bathrooms, the quest for racial equality became the easy, racialist out of affirmative action; the “right” of the cast of Hamilton to speak their version of truth to Mike Pence sits uneasily with left-wing support for stifling political correctness on campus. If you listen to “progressives” talk about poverty, small business, public education and improving government services like the VA or the post office, they have nothing of interest to say. They have postures, not positions. They reflexively support colorful “activists” who feed on anger and often don’t represent the constituencies they claim–those activists inevitably act and look more like Fidel than Nelson Mandela on cable TV.