If politics were high school, progressives would be…
Western Pennsylvania, 7th grade, I was new to my town & my school, and they constantly ran out of seats in the lunchroom. If you didn’t move fast, it was literally standing room only. My one friend and I found two seats (together, even!), and a minute later, a rough-looking, big guy in a jeans jacket showed up. “Hey, you better move. Bart Dombowski’s gonna sit there.” I was paralyzed with fear. He was literally twice my size, with a scowling face, and reeked of cigarette smoke. “Hey! You deef? I said move! I could beat you up, but when Bart gets here, he could crush you with his little pinkie.” He started tapping me on the top of the head with his tray, harder and harder.
Then my friend, no bigger than me, stood up and stared the guy down. After a minute, unbelievably, the guy left, calling over his shoulder “You better watch yourself!” But the guy, or Bart, never bothered us again.
This is the kind of thing I’m trying to pay forward here. I’ve never liked bullies, whether they’re crude, like Bart Dombowski’s wingman, everywhere, like the corporate right-wing noise machine, or even smooth, like Randy Kuhl.
Let’s face it, we’re the poor kid, the minority kid, the girl who has to work twice as hard as the rest to be noticed, let alone appreciated. By contrast, the conservative movement is like the rich kid who pays someone to do his homework (right-wing think tanks and pundits), is family friends with all the business owners in town (corporations, lobbyists), and whose parents own the town paper (right-wing noise machine). And to boot, he’s a bully.
This is why it’s an uphill battle being a progressive these days.
But we’re also the kid who, throughout high school, has stood up for people being bullied, fought school rules that discriminate against certain students, and generally worked to make compassion and empathy the rule, rather than survival of the fittest. (Fill in your own progressive values here.)
That’s why we need to keep fighting for what’s right, even if the battle is uphill. And why we need to be as effective as we can, in being a voice for the voiceless, and helping the voiceless find their voice.
(Names in that story are changed. You expect me to remember specifics from 7th grade?)
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You’re so right ! I send my kids to school everymorning by saying “Be excellent to each other and do the right thing”. Are they star pupils?, no, but they have grown up beautifully with strong moral compasses and social consciences. They have always stood up for those who needed it and fought on the side the progressive causes. “I stand for motherhood, America and a hot lunch for orphans”
Captain my captain! I love that movie. btp has captured the progressive frame beautifully. We stand and defend the misinformed, forgotten, deprived, and abused who are left behind by the wealthy and powerful. Conservative often gripe how ‘they’ have several opportunities to ‘redeem themselves’ by ways of tax cuts, health savings accounts, and privatizing social programs. Unfortunately, they look at America as ‘I’ and not ‘We’.
Great post btp.
Rochester-Area Schools: Exceling in Music…
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Bart Dombroski? Isn’t he a middle linebacker for the Saints now?
OP-funny you should bring up “Oh Captain, My Captain !” The poem is up on my refridgerator and that is how I think of Eric.
Thanks for your support of my position yesterday !
[...] is this: fighting back isn’t enough, progressives have to start fighting smarter. Earlier, btp brought up staring down a school bully as analogous to what progressives need to do with conservatives. But I [...]