Sheinkopf Speaks: The Progressive Conundrum
Hundreds of protesters gathered and chanted in unison towards the building across the street where Senator Chuck Schumer resides. (Photo by Tsubasa Berg)
It's a sure sign they got clubbed the day before when you get the email telling you how good they did, how bad the world is, how the other guys are really criminals, and that you should give the email sender your credit card so the battle they didn't win but want you to believe they won goes on.
The U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez e-mailers were busy the morning after the Nov. 2 election where the nation overall rejected her and the Squad and much of everything identifiable with them along with their word valued survey research generated rhetoric.
"In politics," the AOC emailer wrote," it's easy to get discouraged. Losing the Governor's race in Virginia…was a huge bummer. But there were some huge wins…"
Then she tells the truth. Uh-oh. It's not politics she and her followers are engaged in. No, it's the creation of a mass movement. After that admission and citing campaigns she had nothing to do with, she writes, send the dough. No dough, how do the consultants get paid? How does she pay for the travel she and her buds can't shift over to the taxpayers? How will the mass movement keep growing its mass?
Political scientists and social movement observers will tell all who listen the story of Townsend. Quite the fellow this Townsend. His idea wasn't to be posthumously recalled by having his name placed on the front walls of the local post office located near his hometown, Fairbury, Illinois.
Francis Everett Townsend had a plan. Every American 60 or older would receive $200 each month. It was the old-age retirement pension to be paid for by a 2 percent sales tax. You couldn't accumulate the dough. It had to be spent.
People loved it. Townsend Plan clubs opened throughout the country. A national social movement was born. The result? Social Security. The movement had achieved its goal, and Townsend will forever remain a post office. Few remember him, and when the battle was won, goodbye social movement.
So it is with others. Progressives boycotted grapes because farmworkers needed support. Farmworkers are allowed to organize, grapes back in vogue. Next.
President LBJ keeps his word and passes the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Nothing's been the same in the battle for fairness since. Anti-Vietnam War movement finds its goal met. Goodbye.
When the movement gets its goal enacted, it's over.
Now you understand the problem of AOC and her group of deep thinkers. Get something done? The movement is out of business. And so are they.
So now we can explain why AOC–who chased 25,000 Amazon jobs away–voted against us by saying nay to the infrastructure bill. Doing nothing or doing her best to make sure nothing gets done is what she needs to do. If something happens the clamoring will stop, the angst might end, the curtain could drop on her theatrics. She would be forced to be a protector of those who work and want to work.
She would really have to work for the people, not for her movement. After all, would we really want that?
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