A New Politics

After a discussion about commonalities on the left and right of the political spectrum, a friend of mine summed up a compelling new politics. The "party" of Principled People versus what he called demagogues... it's not about "left" and "right."

Aside: I think he used the term "demagogues" for effect and simply meant "unprincipled" people. Admittedly, on controversial issues the notion of one's "principles" breaks down; the subject of abortion is one such example. But one can recognize principled people who conduct themselves in a fair and honest way.

Today's political situation is in flux and this "new politics," were it to manifest itself in electoral party politics, would be temporary. It would be an instance of moderate elements of the populist left and right asserting control to refresh a corrupted political system. Common people on the left and right recognize the corrupting influence of big money in both legislative and judicial elections.

Other areas of common interest between common people on the left and right include:

Concern about...

• Consolidation of wealth perpetuated by Wall Street's culture of anything goes .

• Consolidated control of the mass media

• Consolidation of corporate control ... Big Business that outsources jobs and makes it impossible for small businesses to compete fairly.... monopolies, cartels, oligopolies.

• We're concerned with what some call "activist judges"... like those Supreme Court judges who recently decided that corporations should have MORE influence over the political electoral process when the Citizens United case before them should have been decided on more narrow grounds.

• We share a concern about police brutality

In other words, we share concerns about the consolidation of power among a small sector of our society.

• We didn't like the bank bailouts that perpetuated this power when we had a chance to put the bankers in their place.

• We believe in national sovereignty, something we give up with so-called "free trade" agreements written by transnational corporate lawyers.

• We share opposition to warrantless wire tapping and other privacy invasions of the USA PATRIOT Act

• We're mutually concerned about the erosion of of Posse Comitatus Act, which places limits on the US military's use of police powers for domestic law enforcement.

• Similarly, we share concerns about the CIA conducting domestic operations contrary to its founding charter.

• We share concerns about joblessness and homelessness

• We share the concern that the two major political parties are increasingly out of touch with real concerns of the people, in part because we recognize they have been captured by a dysfunctional political system corrupted by the consolidated power referenced earlier.

Sources:

GDAE Podcast Episode 29