Every so often, I’ll leave a comment responding to a video by a “liberal” political YouTuber, just to see what type of reaction it generates in viewers who perceive themselves as left because they support so-called leftist politicians in the Democratic Party — Alexandria Occasio-Cortez (AOC), Rashida Tlaib, Ro Khanna et al.
This brings out a type of offended commenter who continues to believe in the electoral system that brings such individuals to office then sees them hamstrung by party leadership. At which point, such new office-holders are presented with a choice: pursue — at the risk of their “political careers” — the promised populist goals that got them into office, or recede into the celebrity status offered by their dedicated followers. By acquiescing to the center-right incrementalism proffered by party leadership.
Recently, I left a representative comment about AOC, particularly her failure to oppose current US foreign policy. Her supporters’ counter-responses were enlightening. I must be a Jimmy Dore fan, one complained. AOC was smart, in showing voters that she wasn’t too radical to get elected said another acolyte. The most revealing commenter admitted that because of the green new deal, she “worshipped at the altar of AOC.” Which, of course ignored the history that it was the Green Party who introduced the GND before AOC burst onto the political scene.
Keep drinking the Koolaid, I thought. As for me, I do not allow myself to become a fan, a participant in celebrity culture. Period. The folks whom I respect are mostly dead, mostly killed by that not-too-radical culture you espouse. Folks like Malcolm X, Daniel Berrigan, MLK, Fred Hampton. And a few still living under duress like Julian assange, Ed Snowden, Ralph Nader, Cornel West, Chris Hedges. Public citizens largely uninterested in political power unless it opposes a status quo that has buried us in deep piles of socioeconomic toxicity.
Moreover, I do agree that several current commentators are correct when they criticize incrementalism in the face of catastrophic problems like climate change, ecocide, or global US military genocide. Sadly, acquiescence to the demonstrably corporately corrupted leadership of either major US party tends to draw these celebritized politicians into the incrementalist web. In the context of existential challenges, these so-called liberals reveal that their disposition does not include significant status quo opposition.
Leftists in their own minds, incrementalists in reality. Like bringing a fly swatter to a knife fight.