For what it's worth, I think it's time to find a way to discuss politics in terms that do not assume that we can understand our politics as being a choice between two antagonistic and different "directions." The "Right" or "Left" dichotomy that is popularly assumed to provide us some good information on our political options is profoundly unhelpful.
We have LOTS of choices about what we can and/or should do - and this is true with respect to ALL of the MANY different and difficult problems we confront. Similarly, we have LOTS of choices between ALL of the MANY different possibilities we might choose to realize. Presenting our political options as a choice between a supposed "Left" solution, and a supposed "Right" solution provides us no worthwhile guidance whatsoever.
If we don't like "polarized politics" - and I think that most people don't - then we should stop trying to think that "Left" and "Right" directional assignments are the right way to outline or understand our choices, or to outline and understand our differences.
When we analyze our options in terms of a binary "Left" or "Right" choice, we are telling ourselves that there are, really, only two possible options.
Does anyone really believe that? Well, if you, the reader, believe that, can I persuade you to "think again"?
My father told me, and my experience has confirmed, that ANYTHING is possible. The worst thing you can think of is possible, so let's see how this example grabs you. How about a nuclear attack on some major city in the United States, coming very soon, in retaliation for the completely unauthorized attack that our current president ordered (and was carried out) against Iran? If that's not the worst thing that we might read about in tomorrow's newspaper, feel free to suggest another. It's a pretty bad thing, that's for sure, and it IS POSSIBLE. Lots of bad things are possible.
And what about something good? What about the next Congress deployhing a national budget (balanced, of course) that funds health care for all, and free education for all, Pre-K through college, and a new type of housing, built by the government, that provides ownership opportunities for EVERY family in the United States, with the housing sold at prices that allow every family, from whatever their income level, to find housing that they can afford? However, the housing I am talking about will be sold with this catch. That housing, when resold in the future, would have to be sold for the same price for which it was purchased, increased only by inflation, not speculation.
Everyone can come up with their own "best" possibility. That one I just outlined has a lot of atttaction for me. Of course, we could only do that if we treated the wealth of the United States (which is prodigious) as if that wealth were appropriately mobilized to be helpful to EVERYONE.
Let's be honest, our current politics, which is fighting to elect candidates who are defined by their partisan polarity ("Left" or "Right") is dysfunctional in the extreme. If we don't quickly reestablish a politics focused on "problems" and "opportunities," and "possibilities," above all, instead of being focused on suppposed political polarities, "Right" and "Left," we are all going down with the ship.
(1) - https://turnleftpac.org/
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