Unprecedented for the Democrats?

 

Many conservatives, dismayed by what is happening in the Democratic Party, are warning  that it is an unprecedented shifting of the party to the left. I think they are wrong, not about the shifting but in thinking it is unprecedented.

Bernie Sanders is probably a worse human being than Henry Wallace (who accomplished some useful things before entering politics and finally turned against the communists), but he is no more a friend of and apologist for Soviet communism  that Wallace was in his time in politics, and Wallace made it to vice president. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is nothing new for the Democrats. She is just a more telegenic Bella Abzug.  Karen Bass is probably no bigger a fan of Fidel Castro than was Ron Dellums.   Some of the things McGovern and his people were advocating in 1972 are well to the left of what  the Dems are proposing now, as were many of the plans and actions of the New Dealers.  

 The Democrats have had their leftists for decades, and at various times, as now, the leftists have had significant influence in or even control of the party.  Of course not all Democrats are leftists. Both major parties have a diversity of opinions and ideologies among their members. Sometimes more moderate and less authoritarian people have been in charge, but the leftist authoritarianism has always been present and important in the modern party. It is the main reason Democrats are rarely the lesser evil in elections. It is the reason they are not the lesser evil this year, even against Donald Trump.

 

A Modest Proposal to Increase Correctness in Corporations

Corporations from Walmart to Amazon to Ebay have been rushing around removing the rebel battle flag and, one presumes, clothing and toys displaying it from their inventory. Apple has gone further and banned even Civil War games  depicting the flag incidentally as part of a historic scene.  These companies are free to do so, and I have no interest in owning a Confederate battle flag. I’m strictly a Union man. However despite these gestures in the way of correctness and approved thinking, there remains  a long way to go before achieving total purity. 

Imagine an organization still existing and still influential today which was the main political supporter of slavery, an organization whose members started the Civil War to defend slavery  and then, after losing the war, created and defended segregation and Jim Crow for almost a hundred years. Imagine that organization gave the country its only pro-Klan and segregationist president and had an admitted Klansman as one of its leaders as recently as a couple of decades or so ago.  One would have  to expect the same companies which have distanced themselves so righteously from a mere symbol (and a somewhat ambiguous one at that) would have to wash their hands of such a tainted group.

Well such a group does exist. It is called the Democratic Party, and its members did all those things. So in the name of consistency, shouldn’t  these companies and   Apple in particular need to cut all ties to the Democratic Party and remove any items or apps related to that party or showing its symbol in any way?  After all, there is no point in being halfway correct or sort of pure on something like this.