I’m basically your aging boomer former hippie radical type who mostly moved on from those days, but not completely. When I’m not writing or engaged in politics my work requires me to travel a fair amount, so keep that in mind if postings sometimes get slim.
I still can remember when RFK spoke at my High School in 1966. I was idealistic before he came, and I was more idealistic after he left. His assassination had the effect of radicalizing me further. My opposition to the Viet Nam War kept me commuting with some regularity from College on Long Island to protests in DC, while Martin Luther King Junior’s assassination thrust me into multi-cultural organizing, bursting the all white bubble that had been my childhood.
A moment I will never forget took place in, I think, late 1969 (OK, obviously I forget the exact time, lol). I was living on Long Island New York attending College. I was swept up back then in the sense that everything was possible, never doubting: "we can change the world" (anyone remember Thunderclap Newman?). I had watched from afar as old France almost dissolved with the French Student Workers "revolt" in 1968. Woodstock Nation still seemed likely, maybe even inevitable.
For some reason I was in Queens County that day (a part of New York City) in a very gritty urban environment. I stood in the middle of a main commercial district, with swarms of people crossing streets holding shopping bags, not fancy ones mind you, just groceries and the like. Lot's of massive Apartment buildings, buses spewing out black exhaust. No hip clothing in sight, no hippies either, in fact no “youth culture” of any sort, really, to speak of. Just a lot of older folks mostly, a lot of ethnic diversity, and not so much money.
Back on campus students had been discussing for over a year how social and political upheavals had brought us to the brink of a Second American Revolution. But I looked around that day and thought to myself, what kind of Revolution will touch all of this? It was as they say a sobering moment. Looking back on it now, there was no cohesive strategy from the student Left to reach that neighborhood in Queens. “Power to the people”? These were the people, and they weren’t hearing our chants.
Fast forward to the present. I still want to change the world. I still think we can, but something that slowly starting taking shape for me that day in Queens has deepened into this fundamental understanding; radical social transformations don't happen overnight. Those that seemingly do are more or less skin deep, and sometimes in fact end up leading to retreats rather than advances in the evolution of social justice.
Yes there can be victories, yes there must be victories, but we are engaged in the work of generations, and there are always many turning points on a long and winding road. Knowing that, there will still be moments of real opportunity, which must be seized when they become available. I see such an opportunity now, with the chance to elect Wesley Clark President in 2008. That’s what this blog is about. That’s why I’m writing it, and I admit it’s a departure from my former political priorities.
Though I’ve been a political activist all of my adult life, prior to 2003 I had little to do with electoral politics. My mainstream political agenda was microscopic; I voted, since doing so drained almost no time or energy, but did not participate beyond that. I believed then, and still do today, that grass roots activism affects the general political climate as much as or more so than any electoral organizing could.
I focused on causes. In early years I took part in; surrounding the Pentagon (during the Viet Nam War), bringing supplies to Martin Luther King's Tent City (after he was killed), rallying for the American Indian Movement (while they occupied Wounded Knee), and shutting down the Long Island Expressway (following the Kent State killings). In later years I fought Reagan's illegal Contra War, blockaded the Diablo Canyon Nuclear Power Plant, supported traditional Dine families at Big Mountain Arizona, and organized for the homeless. There is no end to causes to fight for, fires that destroy must be extinguished, but new fires will constantly emerge while there still are arsonists loose among us.
And this is where I diverge from some of my fellow leftists who say; focus on the system, because the system is at fault. I agree with the blame, but not the focus. I say focus on the people, because without the people, the system will never change. It’s that day in Queens that never left me. In some ways old radicals like me look out now on the worst of both worlds. Most people still don’t hear our revolutionary cries, and the fires that blaze threaten to engulf us all. We have to deal with the present, we have to deal with the future, and we need an effective place to start.
I’ve been doing this long enough by now to see that a solution without a strategy solves nothing. To change America, to change the world, requires both a political and psychological strategy that can actually be effective. I trace the beginning of my own strategy shift into mainstream Democratic Presidential politics back to the results of the 2000 Presidential Elections. I expected bad things from George W. Bush, but I never expected it to be this bad. Under the current Administration, another World War is actually no longer inconceivable. That type of fire has to be stopped immediately, with or without dealing with root causes. So, come the 2004 Elections, I was looking for someone, almost anyone, who could stop George Bush from getting re-elected, and that’s when I first looked at General Wesley Clark.
Wes Clark never rails against America, and that puts some leftists off. How can anyone be blind to the sins of our past and present? There is much to attack about America as we know it, and leftists are superb at doing just that. They excelled at that in the 60’s also. I remember, I was them. Its 40 years and thousands of demonstrations later, and big problems remain with how America relates to the world, and injustice at home continues. One thing I know for certain is, that’s not because the more sordid truths about America have not been told and told repeatedly.
I know, I hear it and read it repeatedly, but that's only because I don't change the channel or put down a newspaper when I hear or see it said. I’m looking for that information, I want to know it all, I don’t filter it out, but hundreds of millions of other Americans do. If I wasn’t prepared to see and hear the full truth about today's America, I doubt I would. Speaking the truth isn't enough when ears aren't open to hearing it. Being progressive isn’t enough if being progressive doesn't change what is wrong with America and the world. Lives are lost in practice, not in theory.
No, Wesley Clark doesn’t rail against America. Wes Clark approaches the challenges differently. If you listen to Clark you will hear him summon Americans to greatness by reminding us of what is great about America, and then asking us to live up to that great standard. Martin Luther King Jr. understood that psychological dynamic well. He repeatedly called Whites to greatness while he fought against White oppression. When Wes Clark talks about an idealistic America he is telling a half truth, not an untruth, because Clark summons up a true vision of America, one with roots dating back hundreds of years to Thomas Paine and "Common Sense”, one that has literally inspired millions of true Patriots and idealists for all the many decades ever since.
I think that’s a political and psychological strategy that can actually be effective, and it’s particularly effective coming from a man like General Clark, who is listened to with respect by a very broad range of Americans, and who, in turn, listens back. Most progressives know that Democrats have to retake the White House in 2008. What is wrong in today's world is deadly serious and must be dealt with now. It can not be delayed until some theoretical mass reeducation movement gets through peoples denial and remolds American self awareness to feel sufficient shame and anger for things our government does in the world and to fellow Americans. We can’t wait for a moment when Americans rise up and demand radical change. I already waited 40 years for that to happen. How long have you waited?
In my experience I find it true that the left is excellent at analyzing where we stand today, and visioning where we should be tomorrow. Where the Left gets lost is on the journey from here to there. I believe that electing Wes Clark President in 2008 is a significant and very doable strategic step forward, in getting us from here to there. I can’t explain all my reasons for believing that in a single written piece. If I could I wouldn’t need an ongoing blog, I would just write it once and repost it constantly. But that’s what “A Left Turn FOR CLARK” is all about, that and whatever else I feel moved to write about on any given day.
Tom Rinaldo
