Opinion

Why the United States’ Left needs a “new vision”

By Jack L. Suria Linares ’15

February 10, 2015

Since the birth of the New Right in the 80s, the left and liberal political spectrum has generated more reactionary dialogue. Instead of developing new strategies demanding a shift in how we talk about income inequality, race, gender or sexuality, the liberal and left have only fought to defend the gains we won in the thirty years between the New Deal and the 1960s. We need to end reactionary discussion and stop being defensive about our politics. We need to take a unified, intersectional and multi-issue political position. We can do this when liberals and leftists begin to work with one another, both nationally and here at Hamilton. Otherwise, the Republicans and right-wing libertarians will continue to control how we define contemporary issues.

The discussion over middle-class economics can be a place to work together. We must understand that while the intention of these policies is good, eliminating poverty will not inherently solve racist, homophobic or sexist structures in the United States.  A heavy cultural cost and loss of agency exist when assuming that transcultural America must aspire to the culture and living standards of the traditionally patriarchal and principally white middle class.  But this does not mean that we ought not to work against poverty. On the contrary, wealth redistribution will remain crucial in our current globalization process and increasing division between the top one percent and the rest of society.  This does not mean that injustice revolves solely around economic injustice, but that all issues relate to each other and are in dire need of supporting one another.  Liberals and leftists need to create a new vision that does not assume a middle-class bias, while also attempting to eliminate poverty and other forms of oppression. This vision can only come after we stop being defensive and reactionary about our political positions from Republicans and right wing libertarians. We need to create our own space to develop a new program that we can believe in, and that can benefit working class people without eliminating their agency.

At Hamilton, students need to begin to shape their political identity while remaining open to dialogue, especially due to the mainstream “liberal”—in reality neoliberal-—ideas of the Democratic Party that fail to support a majority of people in the United States.  Students need to unify politically and strategically, even as they fight for particular issues, and knowing that even total unity is not enough. Students need to feel that they are in coalition not out of necessity but out of genuine compassion for each other.  They must create a community that values all causes and values the dignity of people.  Students need to fight for their beloved community, and a truly integrated society that does not assume a white, middle-class standard. As historians analyzed the sixties movements, without the growth of a people’s movements for civil rights in the Deep South and northern cities, the Civil Rights Act of 1964 would not have passed. Thus, today we need to engage in working across issues with one another, and for one another.  Grassroots movements, both on a national and local scale (they are happening in Syracuse University and Colgate University), can provide the space to bridge gaps and re-engage in ending the systems of oppression that liberals used to engage in, instead of focusing only on defending the historical gains. It is time to work toward a new society that is free of racial, economic and gendered injustice.

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