At some point over the last three years, being a progressive ceased to just be an answer to a poll for me. By this point, it is an integral part of my life, and cannot be separated out from other facets. Even most of the people in my life who I would consider friends work in politics pretty much full-time. Sometimes, when we are just hanging out with one another and holding conversations that are akin to bullshitting, we will make jokes that are variations on the following themes:
- It is because we hate religion so much that will lead us to do x.
- It is because we hate America so much that we mention x.
- It is because we don't stand for anything that we fight for x.
- It is because we hate the troops that we support x.
- It is because we are such liberal elites that we enjoy x.
Regular readers of blogs might see humor based on these themes appear in the blogosphere from time to time as well. Basically, we are taking the slurs the Republican Noise Machine has thrown at progressives for decades and transforming them into internal jokes. While the invectives tossed our way are nowhere nearly as damaging and dangerous as the hate-speech the African-American and GLBT communities have dealt with for decades (or even centuries), the spirit of taking those hateful words and re-claiming them as your own is nearly identical. The idea is to take those words and rid them of their power. Or at least that is the idea.
Last night, I was watching Dave Chappelle on Inside The Actor's Studio. During the interview, his use the n-word came up. Chappelle talked about how he used the word in his comedy, and he used it among his friends and, yes, he believed he was helping to remove some of the power from the word when he did so. However, he was still extremely upset when any white person would use the word, no matter the context. Now, I want to make it clear that even though being a progressive political activist has somehow settled into the core of my being, I am fully aware that the slurs sent toward progressives are not nearly as vicious toward my entire human persona as the n-word has been toward African-Americans (or many other words toward many other groups). Still,
after the discussion on left-wing strawmen last night I at least felt I understood where Chappelle was coming from on this (even if I could never appreciate the intensity, given our differing situations). When I make jokes of the sort I listed above to my progressive, political activist friends, or even when I make them in public on MyDD, that feels fine to me. But whenever I hear someone outside those groups making the same comments--whether or not they are meant as jokes--it makes me really upset.
Left-wing strawmen of the sort I list above were developed and perpetuated by the conservative movement over the last thirty years as a means of tarnishing the entire left with those stereotypes. The stereotypes were used not to depict fringe left-wing positions, but rather to try and identify anyone who identified as a liberal, a progressive, or even as a Democrat with those positions. Bill Clinton is a good example of this. He governed absolutely as a centrist, but was still identified by the right with every single one of those stereotypes. The right-wing does not use these stereotypes to help the vast majority of Democrats seem reasonable compared to a fringe left, but to make the entire left the equivalent of the fringe left, no matter how much any individual Democrat, liberal or progressive sought to distance himself or herself from those stereotypes. Bill Clinton will be hit just as badly, if not worse, than use crazy, military-hating, religion-hating, extremist, vulgar, anti-American, overly partisan bloggers.
When wielded by someone outside the left, these stereotypes serve no other purpose than to tarnish the entire left, and to give the right power over the left. Whenever anyone on the right or in the established media brings up those stereotypes, then that is the exact purpose that person is serving. Whenever anyone who is implicated in those stereotypes--Democrats, progressives and liberals--wields them in public and is not joking, I fail to see how that person is not doing exactly the same thing. Personally, it feels worse to me when that happens, because I feel betrayed by that person. It makes me feel as though that person, who is personally damaged by those stereotypes and strawmen, would rather have the favor of the people who invented those stereotypes and strawmen, instead of with his or her fellow Democrats, liberals or progressives. It also helps make those brutally unfair stereotypes and strawmen real, because conservatives can point to yet another Democrat, liberal to progressive who has validated whatever ridiculous invective that was being used.
Are there people on the left who take these extreme positions? Yes. However, they have no national presence, and no national microphone. It is virtually impossible to find any prominent Democrats, liberals or progressives who states that any mention of God was a theocracy, that the war in Iraq was just about oil, that American soldiers are baby killers, that the free market should be abolished, that America is itself an evil empire, and so on. The reason it is impossible to find any Democrats, progressives and liberals with a prominent role in Democratic, liberal or progressive politics who make any of these statements is because virtually none of them hold any of these positions. Further, these stereotypes are almost more effective because they are hurled at a general population, but referring to a specific and very small population that has no means of talking back. Right-wing news sources will of course find a couple willing stooges to speak on behalf of these positions (same random professor, blogger or person who brings a lawsuit against saying the pledge), and hold them up as someone the entire left must defend. This is because, for some reason, the left is responsible for the statements and beliefs of every single person who has ever shown up to one of our events, while the right-wing is not even responsible for the outrageous statements of officials who have been elected to federal office statewide. The lack of equivalence is astounding.
All of this brings me to a few thoughts for further discussion:
- I don't know if making internal jokes based on the stereotypes and strawmen the right wing hurls at all Democrats, liberals and progressives helps us diffuse the power of those stereotypes. I'm not convinced it works for other groups either.
- Having people implicated in those stereotypes repeat those stereotypes in public and for serious does in fact hurt all Democrats, liberals and progressives. We are all implicated in these stereotypes and strawmen. These stereotypes and strawmen exist only to implicate all of us. When they are repeated by anyone in a serious manner, that is exactly the purpose they continue to serve. I agree with what Des Moines Dem wrote in the comments last night:
I'm Jewish. How do you think other people would like it if I went on tv and said, "All too often Jews are greedy and try to cheat other people. We need to remember to be honest in our business dealings, whether our customers are fellow Jews or gentiles."
I can't imagine that would improve the image of Jews in general.
- Maybe this doesn't, and won't, bother most Democrats, liberals and progressives because they do not identify with their politics as strongly as I do. Maybe when they hear other Democrats saying this, some actually feel reinforced. However, it hurts them none the less.
- Even if the use of stereotypes and strawmen of this nature is not a large or frequent part of a prominent Democrat, liberal, or progressive's public speech, we all have to realize that the media is desperate to pounce on any use of these strawmen from Democrats, liberals and progressives. The frequency with which the media misquotes Democrats in this regard is proof positive of this. They want to see these statements, even when they are not there. It will be worked into the overall media narrative about you, even if it is not at all prominent.
- We have to change the incentive system on the use of this language. The established media, certain centrist Democratic groups, and the right-wing are extremely eager to reward Democrats for making public and serious use of these stereotypes and strawmen. Democrats who make these statements will be granted a meager form of power, typically on Sunday morning talk shows or on cable news nets, in return for making these statements. A series of leaders on the Democratic side, both among party leaders and among presidential candidates, need to make a series of public statements indicating that this sort of behavior is unacceptable and that we can't run against our own party and still hope to lead it. If the netroots and party leaders both make it clear that the use of these stereotypes and strawmen will result in a loss of power within the party, then we can de-incentivize the use of these strawmen and stereotypes. And that will be good for all Democrats, liberals and progressives.
- Expect me, and many other activists like me, to continue to be offended when Democrats wield these stereotypes against themselves. I will not chill out, and it will affect my behavior in intra-party matters.
- Expect the right and the media to continue to salivate over the possibility of Democrats using these stereotypes and strawmen against other Democrats. For example, Instapundit immediately jumped on the Obama bandwagon for one of his comments the other day:
"One good test as to whether folks are doing interesting work is, Can they surprise me?" he tells me. "And increasingly, when I read Daily Kos, it doesn't surprise me. It's all just exactly what I would expect."
Unlike Clinton, who had to show his independence from the urban black base of his party, Obama will have to show his independence from the urban
white base of his party. . . .
The right desperately wants a Democratic hero to Sistah Souljah the netroots. They will pounce on any opportunity to make it happen.
Over the long-term, I don't really know what can be done to fully remove the damaging impact of language of this sort. For that matter, I don't think that anyone knows for certain what is to be done to solve the far more serious and long-standing problem of the use of speech such as the n-word. But I do know that this is a big problem, and I am not wrong to focus on it. I don't see anything remotely equivalent to this on the right, and I think it is one of the big reasons why Democrats have not buried Republicans in terms of partisan self-identification, and why liberals have not further closed the ideological self-identification gap on conservatives. Given that self-identifying liberals are the second most likely group to vote for Democrats, and self-identifying Democrats are the third most likely, accomplishing both goals are essential to all Democrats and to a long-term Democratic governing majority. We need more Democrats and we need more liberals, and but we won't get them by reifying stereotypes about either group. This is a major roadblock to our goals, and we have to deal with it head-on.
