“It’s Time for the Left to Abandon Liberalism Once and For All“

[kaleckim]

http://www.counterpunch.org/2016/05/11/its-time-for-the-left-to-abandon-liberalism-once-and-for-all/

…This poses a problem as to what a liberal is, and this is addressed by Danny Katch in his book Socialism … Seriously, in which he points out that, “Millions of people find themselves classified as liberals by default, ranging from those who march against banks and bombs to those who bail out the former and drop the latter. That’s not a very useful category.” He points out that in today’s politics, a liberal is basically anyone who isn’t a Republican.

As the party splinter begins to widen, the term liberal is no longer going to suit the leftists who align more on Sanders side, or even further. For socialists, this has meant abandoning the term altogether. One reason is, as Katch argues is that while “Liberalism can agree with socialism that some things about capitalism should be reformed, and socialists often work alongside liberals to win those changes. Where we differ is that liberalism views reforms as ways to preserve capitalism while socialism sees them as steps toward replacing it.”
While not everyone will default to the position of socialism as they abandon the liberal ideology of saving capitalism, it does seem to be the most viable alternative at this point in time. Liberals in general, as Katch highlights, have done nothing but mock the Republicanplatform but for many years have failed to offer solutions. We see this today as Hillary Clinton takes the presumptive position for the Democratic Party is offering herself up as merely the alternative to a seemingly xenophobic and racist Donald Trump. Clinton has campaigned solely on offering more of the same of the last eight years of President Obama, doing little to nothing to offer fresh ideas or solutions.

…Liberalism has been one of the great failures of the past century, failing to solve the world’s biggest issues and even issues directly inside the United States. Liberalism had to rely on the Supreme Court to enact same-sex marriage rights, liberalism has failed to provide healthcare to every single American, and it has failed to protect racial minorities from rampant racism and discrimination.

…While Clinton and her supporters are correct in saying she is a better choice that Trump, a vote for Clinton offers no forward progress and leaves us with four to eight years of stagnation. For those living in poverty, those locked up in for-profit prisons for non-violent drug offenses, to those who are sick and still cannot afford to see a doctor, that stagnation is too much to bear.

It is time for leftists to speak up and abandon liberalism and to rise up to the challenge of putting forth new ideas. A true opportunity for change has presented itself and the future of progress hinges on how we move forward.

[AgingAmerican]

1. Liberalism is the mildest form of leftism

To 'abandon' it is to go FULL RIGHT WING

[kaleckim]

2. Wonderful logic there

The article is saying that stopping at that midway point has been an abject failure, and the macroeconomic data, environmental data and data on our infrastructure proves that. The argument of the article is to go further, because the problems we are dealing with are structural and cannot be solved with superficial solutions. How that, in your mind, leads to moving to the right wing is beyond me.

[AgingAmerican]

3. Liberalism is just to the left of center on the political spectrum

Conservatism is just to the right of center. There is no ideological center in US politics.

That is basic entry level political science. Poly sci 101

[Maedhros]

5. The OP is arguing that we need to move farther than "just to the Left of center"

and it it NOT arguing that we need to move to the right.

[kaleckim]

6. No, it isn't

since, as the article points out, the word liberal is attached to people and things on both sides of the ideological spectrum, and the word means something different in other English speaking countries. A liberal in Europe refers to someone that supports "free markets". In our country, Noam Chomsky and Hillary Clinton are both called "liberals".

You also didn't provide any logic as to why calling to go further to the left, and addressing fundamental problems, leads to the right wing. You didn't because you can't, it makes no logical sense.

[AgingAmerican]

7. We don't live in Europe

The word liberalism isn't always used as a political label. The word, 'neoliberalism' is a good example of it. The word liberal itself means, 'To allow'.

Politically, Liberalism is just to the left of center on the political spectrum.

[Faux pas]

4. Kickin'

[Warren Stupidity]

8. I abandoned liberalism in 1968.

For pretty much all the same reasons.