Fielding an Opposition

America needs a dynamic, aggressive and energetic political opposition, but it does not have one. For the first time in American history a political faction has surmounted the constitutional barriers to one party control over the government and shown a willingness to damage democracy itself to retain power. It is undermining free elections in the states it controls. It is building in an overwhelming financial advantage by selling influence to companies and people who profit from America's ever-expanding and much reviled overseas empire. Never before has the political party in control of the government sought the destruction of its lawful opposition, but that is what can be seen in its "win at any cost" strategy to get its judges appointed and the revenge and retribution it takes against anyone who makes equal financial contributions to both the party in power and its opposition.

And it doesn't stop there. Our privitized state-run media represent themselves as outside the political fray but have given up their role in exposing false claims. Information that would embarrass or challenge the government is suppressed, ranging from Bush cheating in the presidential debates by wearing a wireless transmitter (amply corroborated by translators and others who had seen the system in operation) to the magnitude and obvious patterns in the "glitches" and "irregularities" in the 2004 presidential election, all of which not-so-mysteriously helped one candidate and harmed his opponent.

How many of us are there? Somewhere between 13M who say they are politically to the left of the center and the 30M who say that there was "some" or "a lot" of fraud in the 2004 presidential election.

Left.org's mission is help the American left be visible, more unified and more powerful. We see a huge potential audience for a campaign to secure honest elections, expose the Bush administration's true objectives and limit our reliance upon the use of force in international relations and the seemingly endless expansion of our overseas empire. To find news and discussion that have not been passed through the very narrow ideological prism of our increasingly powerful media gatekeepers this audience is being driven to the Internet, where we think we can find and engage them.

We have taken on the name Left.org because the national political conversation urgently needs to include the voices of that have been excluded. What passes for the free marketplace of ideas ranges all the way from Senator Joe Lieberman and commentator James Carville on the "left" to Attila the Freeper on the right. it is a false debate between the center and the right that ignores the left and calls it fair.

The most vital political questions of our day are the honesty of our elections, the false glories of the American empire, the precariousness of the financial position most American families must endure, ever-weakening health and retirement security, and the unfairness of globalism. They have been organized out of politics and must be reintroduced by bold voices to the left of the Democratic mainstream. These are the central questions before American democracy and they cannot be discussed for fear of having one's patriotism maligned by the right wing wrecking crews now operating in commercial television and radio.

No critique of the Bush Administration's legislative agenda can be so damaging to the maintenance of the one party state and the expansion of the American empire as an ardent, sustained, reasoned and articulate critique of the ideological pillars and the distorted facts that hold it up. Only the left can strike at the very heart of the old orthodoxies, which if done with any degree of effectiveness will unleash a counterattack that should be trained elsewhere than on the Democratic Party, whose job it is to occupy the center of American politics and win elections.

We are for honest elections, accurate reporting, reality-based public policy, living wages, collective bargaining, sexual freedom, ever-expanding tolerance and open rebellion against oppression.  We are against overseas empires, military adventures, media censorship, corporate favoritism, influence peddling, class domination, racism and homophobia.

If that makes sense to you then we should be together.  Please sign up for our newsletter and make a contribution so we can do more of everything.

-- David Lytel for Left.org, Washington, DC 3/10/05

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