Nothing left

Does the political left even exist in any meaningful way in the US today? As a lifelong card-carrying member of the left since the antiwar movement during the Vietnam War, I believe that the left exists now in splintered ways and primarily in its many expressions on the Internet.

In terms of the left online, I can make an argument that words without actions don’t amount to a political or economic hill of beans. In the face of the Covid-19 pandemic, the left exists only online.

Looking at the left in the pushback to Tara Reade’s accusations of sexual assault and harassment by Joe Biden is instructive. It’s another Hillary Clinton moment when her vocal supporters came down in 2016 like a plague on anyone with a voice who dared to oppose her failed election bid. Don’t criticize the lesser of two evils on the left or your voice will be banished.

Within a few years of Clinton’s loss to Trump, the Women’s March splintered and generally withered as accusations of intolerance shook its ranks. A serious question must be raised about any lasting effects of the women’s movement when allegations of sexual misconduct were leveled at Brett Kavanaugh during his nomination to the Supreme Court. Faced with efforts made to stop his bid for the Supreme Court, none were ultimately effective and an alleged predator sits on that court today.

Similar observations could be made about the endless rear-guard battles to preserve women’s reproductive rights. As a twelve-year veteran as an escort at women’s health clinics, I know well how the real achievements of the women’s movement have been ripped apart by the far right.

There are several lessons here: Shut up if you’re on the left and object mildly or not at all to objectionable behavior. Expect to have serious allegations abandoned against the powerful, and never, ever speak up against evil when it’s staring you right in the face and the allegations are leveled against Democrats.

Donald Trump has the support of religious fundamentalists and Joe Biden refuses to open his archived files at the University of Delaware, a potential source of information about Tara Reade. Perhaps there is truth to the critical analysis of the women’s movement that it ended up being a conduit for upper middle-class women to reach the pinnacle of some positions of power and wealth within a post-industrial capitalist system, leaving masses of working-class and lower middle-class women behind.

I guess if a political and social movement works for some, then it works to a degree, but that’s a hell of a poor left critique. When Kirsten Gillibrand and Elizabeth Warren support Biden, one wonders about substantive support for women’s rights ('Biden sexual assault claim divides Democrats as Republicans ponce, Guardian, May 10, 2020).

The hegemony of wealth and power will tolerate the most egregious level of human behavior! The antiwar movement is yet another example of the left’s failure in the US.

Excerpted from: 'Nothing Left'.

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