Responses
Levinson, Mark
When I read Jeff Isaac I fell into depression. Twenty years of my life—and thousands of others'— wasted! In the depth of my despair, however, I had a revelation. Isaac was right. "A...
...I thought he had a good point, so I tried to change the subject...
...You think we can't change things in this country and I think we can...
...But once in office he implemented the economic policy of George Bush...
...I can't sleep at night because if I lose my job—and a lot of my friends have—I'm in the street...
...Whatever happened to putting people first...
...When hundreds of my co-workers were laid off, they blamed Clinton...
...I'll try and put it in plain English...
...To my surprise they reacted like . . . the trade unionists...
...I explained to them that "the progressive vision of conscious purpose" has "reached its tragic denouement," and that "only a more modest, localist democracy now makes sense in America...
...This group organized citizens around local issues such as getting roads paved and fighting to get the neighborhood its just share of government money for housing and job training...
...One of them said, "Of course that's real...
...I didn't know how to respond...
...If there's no political program to unite people, this anger and insecurity will take ugly forms...
...I decided to explain Isaac's argument to members of a community organization that had an office in the same building as the union...
...There's this guy named Jean Baudrillard, and he says that we live in a hyperreal society...
...FAIL 1996 53...
...I was beginning to question my revelation...
...I suppose guys like Isaac can see through the hyperreality, while morons like us can't...
...Surely if they knew of Isaac's argument, they would not waste their time trying to build a progressive movement...
...Isaac's arguments weren't persuasive...
...It became my mission to spread Isaac's word...
...I thought Clinton had the right idea in 1992 when he got elected on a platform of putting people first...
...I tried another tack...
...It means, according to Isaac, 'that the modes of communication and experience increasingly prevalent inAmerican society efface this reality, by juxtaposing it with other "realities," and by creating new "realities" that necessarily detract from it, and perhaps deny it.' " "I don't know what the hell you're talking about...
...All he talks about is reducing the deficit, NAFTA, and how well the bond and stock markets responded to his program...
...I think we understand all too well how different this period is from the past and I certainly don't think that there is anything inevitable about the direction of change...
...I wasn't getting very far with these workers...
...Everyone knows that race and cultural issues have pushed key constituencies away from the Democrats...
...I went to a local union meeting...
...If you don't, you deny the moral basis of our democracy...
...Look," I said, "the problem with your program is that it 'vastly overstates the possibilities for the general public enlightenment.' " "What...
...I have no savings and a pile of debt...
...A new 'activist public policy,' centered around the problems of a post-industrial economy and the decline of middle-class living standards . . . is anachronistic . . . . Democrats who wish to address the serious problems confronting American liberal democracy" need to think, and act, "in a different way...
...You and your co-workers watch television and you are undoubtedly influenced by commercials...
...They naively thought that it would make political sense for the Democratic party to appeal to the economic interest of the majority of Americans...
...The difference between us is that you and Professor 52 • DISSENT The Poverty of Progressivism Isaac appear to think that history ended with the 1994 elections...
...There were so many people who didn't recognize the "fallacies" on which their beliefs were based...
...Well, whoop-de-do...
...I patiently told them that while declining wages are important, what is "truly real" in American life is "acrimonious identity politics, racial antagonism, middle-class white resentment of affirmative action and welfare, religious fundamentalism, and the phenomenal mobilization of the Christian Coalition...
...One of them said, "We are community organizers because that is what we do best...
...You don't 'acknowledge the irreversibility of history.' The civil rights revolution, changes in gender and sexual attitudes, coupled with the decline of the labor movement, new forms of racism, and so on have created permanent schisms...
...The workers thought this would begin to reverse twenty years of declining wages and increasing inequality...
...Blinded by their own material conditions these workers couldn't see the materialist fallacy...
...But unless we build a movement to confront the inequities in our economic arrangements and the undemocratic nature of corporate power, our work is doomed to be ineffectual...
...You either have faith in the capacities of people or you don't...
...In 1948 Harry Truman desegregated the armed forces— a much bigger step at the time than permitting gays to remain in the military in 1993...
...It was clear that these workers didn't understand...
...I want you to understand we are really on the same side...
...Jeff Faux recently pointed out that during World War II there were white race riots in cities that voted overwhelmingly Democratic...
...That is simply wrong...
...A group of workers were discussing how to organize a coalition to support a program of low interest rates, stronger economic growth, public investment, a jobs program, labor-law reform, an increase in the minimum wage...
...So I tried to explain what Isaac meant by the rationalist fallacy...
...I'm very sympathetic to what you're saying, but according to Jeff Isaac your politics are based on the voluntarist fallacy...
...I'm scared...
...You don't understand how different the current period is from the Progressive Era, and you believe 'that there is a dynamic of change built into the current order of things, that the unresolved difficulties of the present give history a progressive tendency or directionality...
...Yet the white working class voted Democratic because Roosevelt and Truman were seen as being on the workers' side in the struggle over economic security...
...The question is: why haven't liberals pursued economic policies that would keep them together...
...Most of these people voted Republican in 1994—believe me it's not because they like Newt Gingrich— and for Pat Buchanan in 1996...
...This was no time to be depressed...
...It's just that Jeff Isaac has convinced me you're wasting your time trying to create a progressive movement at the national level...
...They would work on local projects...
...These people had not read Isaac, so they did not know about the materialist fallacy...
...There is a lot of insecurity and anger in this country...
...Perhaps Isaac was wrong...
...As a result you probably suffer from what Isaac calls the 'attention deficit disorder of American mass culture.' " "Listen, buddy" (they were starting to get angry), "I'm still not sure I understand what you're saying, but to the extent that I do, I don't like it...
...Many got new jobs, but they pay less, and they have no health insurance or pensions...
...Our activities complement each other...
...What we do should not be counterposed to that of the union activists...
...These workers actually believed that one of the most significant political facts of the moment is that three-quarters of the workforce has experienced declining wages for twenty years...
...It's not as if this is a new issue...
...But FALL • 1996 • 51 The Poverty of Progressivism let me tell you what else is real...
...You 'give no account of how these divisions can be transcended.' " Another worker laughed...
...Your politics are based on historical and historicist fallacies...
Vol. 43 • September 1996 • No. 4
