American Left

 

by Bob Randall

Guest Blogger

(Editor's Note:  Today "Pa Rock's Ramble" is featuring the fourth and final entry in Ranger Bob's current series of essays on American politics.  This time he is focused on the left end of the political spectrum.  Many thanks to my good friend for taking the time and putting forth the effort to share his views in this forum.  Responses to what he has to day, positive or otherwise, are welcome and encouraged.  Ranger Bob, you are appreciated! - Pa Rock)

What’s the opposite of MAGA?  Put a name to it.  I’m kind of stuck.  Partly because there’s not much of a coalition to try to describe.  I asked my buddy, Arthur Issac (A.I.) and he seemed to ramble.  Jon Stewart of the Daily Show came up with a name but he’s a comedian and honestly, it was pretty dumb and not really descriptive.  I found the question on Quora and on Reddit.  I didn’t find any satisfactory answers. One answer was an attempt at an insult.  Another answer was a complete fumble not worth trying to describe.

If the Left had a leader, it would be much clearer as that person would be acting as the gravity for ideas and we could describe it.  Think of the Left as the asteroid belt. It has a total mass that is big enough to form a planet but not tightly coalesced enough to produce the gravity needed to attract all of the dust and space stuff in its orbital path. It remains the fragmented pieces of the planet it could be. I think that's a good analogue to the American Left.  I like the “asteroid belt of politics” (ABOP).  Nothing has enough gravity to attract the flotsam around it.  ABOP is the acronym I choose.

Not all Republicans are MAGA.  Not all Democrats are ABOP.   MAGA is the ultra-right.   ABOP is the ultra-left.  So, I put them on opposite ends of the political spectrum.  How far apart are they?  I think the political horseshoe where the radicals occupy both ends of a horseshoe-shaped spectrum is appropriate here.  They are closer together than they think.  I think the far right is flirting with fascism.  I think the far left is flirting with their own version of ABOP authoritarianism.  While I generally think of communism as the opposite of fascism, that won’t fit here.  C and F are both forms of government.  The ABOP end of the horseshoe is more anarchic than governmental.  More anger than substance.  I expect disagreement with that assessment.  

DJT likes to call it the Lunatic Left.  I agree with that although I don’t use those words.   There are a lot of lunatics at both ends of the spectrum.  The Lunatic Left and the Lunatic Right could hold hands across the horseshoe divide .

I follow a couple of blogs that have some things in common.  If you were to boil their respective efforts down to syrups, they would taste the same.  But they have no respect for each other.  When talking about each other, one of them uses a lot of ad hominem attacks and improper accusations.  The comments on that blog can get pretty nasty.  The other blog uses more reason and there is an effort by commenters to do the same. One tends to attract ABOP folk.  They’re right and they know it and they can prove it by calling the other people names.

ABOP is a target.  I’m watching the news right now and Stephen Miller, of White House infamy, is vowing to use the Justice Department to go after domestic terrorism.  He’s talking about ABOP people.  Wow!   If he knew about my term for the far left, Miller would have said we’re going after ABOP.

Steve Bannon just called Charlie Kirk a modern-day Christian martyr.  MAGA is trying to link Kirk’s murderer with ABOP.   When Jimmy Kimmel said as much in mirror image, he was removed from the broadcast schedule.  I guess one end of the horseshoe has more gravitational pull than the other.

Some final thoughts about ABOP:

ABOP lives in cancel culture.  You can’t pretend to be for free speech while you cancel others.  I know, MAGA cancels, too, but this is about ABOP.   No what-aboutism allowed.

ABOP lives in Trans Activism.  Most of the US will live and let live.  Find a middle ground and take the wins you can get because you’ll lose if you tell me I’m only a man because I say so.

ABOP took Affirmative Action and turned it into Reverse Discrimination.  Find a compromise.

ABOP said “Defund the police” in a knee jerk reaction, and now it is Republican currency.

ABOP confronts Jewish students on campus as though they were single-handedly responsible for all Middle East problems. In doing so, they have handed DJT the currency of antisemitism.

If ABOP continues I expect it to give the Republicans enough currency to swing the 11% of swing voters to win the next presidential election and may even allow them to keep the House and Senate next year. My math formula is MAGA + Swing = 51% of the vote.

My advice for the clump of rock, dust, and ice that finally accumulates enough flotsam and jetsam to lead:  be picky.  Don't try to accumulate every ABOP idea.  Pick the ones that will get you elected.  My advicce for the rest of you:  don’t marry into the ABOP family.