I have been speaking with socialist lately. I apologize my libertarian friends, I’m flirting with the dark side, and I like it. One of these conversations was on twitter, and I’m quite proud of how it went. It started off typically antagonistic, but after some back and forth we both realized we weren’t on polar opposites of the political divide. We add actually had quite a bit in common. Perhaps the biggest difference between us is what we viewed as the establishment. For me the establishment includes politicians, media, federal and state bureaucracy, wall street, the education industrial complex, the military industrial complex, unions, and you know any established group that wield power. For him (I’m just guessing he was a guy) the establishment included some of my groups but not all.
What is most striking is how much larger the rights establishment is than the lefts. I believe this is largely due to the fact that the right views the establishment as cultural, on the other hand the left views it primarily as an issue of class, with a portion who’d view it as racial as well. I believe both are making decent arguments. There is a cultural hegemony in the USA that rarely speaks to the right, and so naturally they view that as an important part of the establishment. The left is well tuned to class issues (less so than before) and has important points to make in regards to inequality.
