I've been thinking about the current issues of the day and how it seems like we are simply repeating old arguments.


Global warming denial is basically the old corporate-driven fight against pollution regulations. We saw what happened when businesses were free to do as they pleased. Things got so bad that Nixon created the EPA.

The fight against same-sex marriage is little different than the arguments to maintain Jim Crow laws, the segregation and racial separation prior to the Civil Rights Act. We saw how some looked at certain people as different and called for treating them that way. In their view, these people didn't deserve the same rights as everyone else.

The call for making abortions illegal is the old struggle to - in a sense - keep women pregnant and dominated. Were it simply about abortion, they wouldn't fight against efforts to provide birth control, to protect pregnant women in the workplace, and to provide prenatal and postnatal care.

The talk about Iran is essentially the same as Iraq in the early 2000's.

The fight against unions and raising the minimum wage is much the same as the struggles the working class faced in the early 1900's. Corporations are always looking for ways to increase profits while disregarding their employees.

The argument for gun rights led by the NRA and others can be compared to the fight the tobacco companies waged to protect their business. Both are about selling a dangerous product and making money. Both used tactics to convince consumers their products are safe. Both used methods to keep buyers coming back for more. Both spent a ton of money fighting Congress.

So here we in 2015, dealing with the same issues as before.

At least that's how I see it. What do you think?

Excellent, thought-provoking post, John ~ I need to organize my thoughts before responding so I at least sound coherent ~

Sooz

Rather illustrates that there isn't really a progressive alternative in the US and, other than the occasional aberrations, there never has been.

oskar, are you implying the US is the only country confronting this?

Sooz

What's "interesting" to me is that it is the "conservatives" who continually reopen their fights for their same preferred-but-regressive ideas ~ it seems they are genetically incapable of admitting their ideas simply have been proven to not work ~ my favorite definition of "insanity" applies: doing the same thing over and over while expecting a different result each time ~

The GOP, largely thanks to the TPers [whom the GOP enabled and encouraged], is now so far to the right they just might fall off the edge of the earth ~ how to change that is the problem ~

Sooz

Why would you think that?

History repeats itself, the first time as tragedy the second time as farce Karl Marx (slightly modified).

Check out the economic history leading up to the Great Depression, and the responses.

History repeats itself

Indeed it does, Cattleman. In fact, my point was how it has repeated within only a few generations (and sometimes the same generation) in one country.


What's "interesting" to me is that it is the "conservatives" who continually reopen their fights for their same preferred-but-regressive ideas.

I agree, Sooz. In my experience, most of the argument comes from those on the right who either don't know our history or brush it aside as not applicable to today, such as those that have told me that unions were once important but not anymore.


Rather illustrates that there isn't really a progressive alternative in the US and, other than the occasional aberrations, there never has been.

Oskar, could you expand on this a bit? I'm not sure I follow you.

You have a two party system.
The Democrats, who are conservative and the Republicans who are far right aand are veering even further right.
Since tha's all there's ever been USians have difficulty in understanding or simply refuse to understand any other concepts such as social democracy.

Thanks, Oskar.