... despite being no more radical or fringe than it was 20 years ago.

Cheers anyway, Scuba!

having mostly become ironclad public policy by mal-governance from the extreme right and demonetization of anything librul.

and let 'em think whatever they want. I know what I mean even if they don't.

In reality my political values haven't changed much in 40 years, and they were never all that radical anyway. I believed in such quaint things as the Bill of Rights and the common good. Still do, but the country has moved so far to the right my values have become "radical." So be it.

DURec

And everyone knows them commies are dangerous bunch!

Serious liberals believe in war and free markets.

Left is when Unions protect the wages of the middle class.

Left is when the courts are not packed with corporate apologists and protectors.

Left is when highways and bridges are built, not sports stadiums.

Left is when the poor are not spat upon and ridiculed.

Left is when social security is protected because it lifted the elderly out of a state of poverty.

There is nothing that says liberals can't enjoy sports.

What is obscene is mega rich corps and team owners holding fans hostage for tax dollars to finance stadiums, then charging them ridiculous amounts for tickets.

I agree that jobs can be created by these stadiums. I object to the rich using the courts and tax money to build their palaces. For example, how the Shrub got rich off of the stadium he built in Arlington and then sold the franchise. Or what is happening now in Miami, the owner taking the team apart after the stadium was built. That stadium will have less jobs because the owner traded off all of his players meaning attendance will be way down and thus affecting the minimum wage workers.

I personally enjoy all sports, just don't want to enrich the one percent. thanks.

For quite a few years they have been the Card's minor league team in the Short-A season NY/PENN league. I've been following quite a few of them as they climb the hellish minor league ladder.. most recently Vance Albitz, a killer SS.
This winter they were sold to the Miami Marlins....When I heard that I thought. "WHO ?"

Followed a few guys up and down to and from the Twins.
I liked the old Silver Stadium much more than Frontier Field...
J R Towles, a catcher/outfielder who can't hit a curve ball, just got traded from the RW to the Cards.
Within 1.5 hours I can get to 3 AAA teams, 2 Short A and a summer college league team.. Sweet in the summer..

the left was pretty strongly in favor of ending the draft. Of course, what has been wrought with the all voluntary services is not quite what we had in mind.

many on the left have always viewed a truly universal draft as one of the better ways to keep the chickenhawks honest. Think of WWII, when the sons of the rich also went to fight.

Draft EVERYBODY with very few exceptions and send NOBODY to fight unnecessary foreign wars.

which was the point of ending the draft, by the way. It wasn't known as the Peace Movement because it was peaceful...

I was an active anti-war protester in SF/Berkeley and planned for a non-religious CO but was over 300 in Draft lottery.

A fair draft is the surest way to reduce wars and the size and cost of military.

Less people should look to the military as a way to get ahead or make a career.

Military and war is the most useless and inefficient use of humanity and the natural world.

There is no such thing as a fair draft, never has been, never could be. It is not possible to make such a thing fair.
If you say "no exemptions no matter what" that is going to put a lot of people into harms way who are physically unable to fight.
Even then, there will be champagne units for the well-connected like Dubya.

There is no such thing as a fair draft, never has been, never could be. It is not possible to make such a thing fair.
If you say "no exemptions no matter what" that is going to put a lot of people into harms way who are physically unable to fight.
Even then, there will be champagne units for the well-connected like Dubya.

There is no such thing as a "perfectly" fair draft. I am suggesting a lottery for all regardless of sex.

One important item would be to do away with military privatization and mercenaries too and enlistment as a path to citizenship.

Acceptance to the military academies should also be blind and on pure merit.

Legacies such as McCain should go away. Better then would it have been a smart and empathetic man such as Jim Morrison, son of Admiral "Gulf of Tokin" Morrison, I joke. There would be still COs and no one put in positions without the intelligence , physical ability, mentality, or will for the assignment, that would be inefficient. People would work in food services and the like rather than contractors. Champagne unit assignments would be criminal acts. The system would not be "perfect" because the ideal is not possible and humans are an inherently unfair and tribal species. But a system and checks and balances should be designed.

I was an active anti-war protester in SF/Berkeley

I can just imagine what sort of reception your pro-draft stance would have received there.

Then the suggestion would have gone over like a lead balloon and I would have kicked myself in the nuts if someone did not kick me first.

The Vietnam draft was blatantly unfair. I had a choice to register in Contra Costa county (east SF bay area) which was a good draft board for non-religious COs because I was going to high school there or 400 plus miles away in my rural and poverty-stricken home. Fortunately, the location of my high school both politicized and gave me more information. Friends that registered in my rural home had a much greater chance of being drafted or were given a choice of military or jail for minor infractions like under-aged alcohol or disturbance of peace. Where I would register was on an Indian Reservation and the kids were mostly Indians, timber workers, and the chronically poverty stricken. The discrimination between my home draft board vs the white middle and upper middle class registration in Martinez was blatant. I shouted this far and wide at the time.

I grew up in a culture where my Dad went to 8th grade, hunting was a way of life, and I never had a BB gun but was given a 22 rifle for my 10th birthday. Age 17, I had my last hunting license and last killed or shot a firearm (with one exception. I shot cones and twigs from the upper branches of trees for science research at one point 30 years ago). This was heretical. My Dad, an over aged WWII volunteer in January 1942 that spent 3 years in England, France, and Germany never really forgave me for this failure as his only son.

That was then and now is now. Now there is an economic draft. People are not 2 or 3 years and out. Many volunteer as there are no jobs and they get training and travel and can retire in 20 years with a pension, skill set, and favorable hiring and other priviledges. The military has become a good or only career choice. If the children of wealthy and professional class people - those financially secure -had their children at risk and no military privatization of functions. There would be a higher proportion of those drafted in support jobs and not in the line of fire. COs, like some in Vietnam, would have alternative service such as working in the National Forests or Parks and other public works.

Unfortunately, some have to serve in the military. In theory, the rich and secure would have much more personal risk to their families. We need to reduce the militarizism of the USA. I would expect far less veterans putting in 20 years and retirement and more three years and out. This assumes a smaller and less aggressive military as well. I may be wrong but we need something better than now. Kids get out of high school today and the military is their career choice because the military is the only way to get a secure job and education

and planned for a non-religious CO but was over 300 in Draft lottery.

Would a "fair" draft accomodate conscientious objectors?

See above.


A fair draft is the surest way to reduce wars and the size and cost of military.

A draft does not reduce wars, it provides a ready source of cannon fodder for any damn fool war the pols want to start.
The only way it reduces the cost is if you pay the draftees next to nothing. That would cause economic hardship on their families.
It pushes training costs up through the roof, and of course all of those veterans are entitled to benefits.

A "fair" draft can be a pressure to reduce wars and make more people look at our bullying and violent foreign policies. In theory, again this may be wrong, there would be far fewer victims of an economic draft and fewer veterans putting in 20 years for retirement and a greater percentage of 3 and out.

Less people should look to the military as a way to get ahead or make a career.

Then we certainly should not force people into the military.

I can see military or alternative service for the unfortunate luck of the draw or those that truly want the experience. One would naive to think we do not need a military. My rough proposal would do away with the often dishonest recruitment process we have now as well as the economic draft. Again, individuals would not be put in positions without the physical ability, intelligence, mentality, or will for there jobs and would have the option of alternative service.


Military and war is the most useless and inefficient use of humanity and the natural world.

On that we agree.

Yea! We agree. IMHO the USA needs to be a far less militarized society. I believe now that a more fair but still imperfect lottery system with alternative service option would be a pressure to reduce the size and cost of military and cause the secure and decision-making individuals to have more thought against violence as foreign policy. If the USA was actually under attack, I think there probably would be plenty of volunteers eager to protect their familes and lives. Like my Dad in WWII. I likely would have thought much different during Vietnam if the USA was under invasion.

Good day to you.

A stimulus bill was passed. "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" was repealed. Gay marriage is in the process of being more and more commonly legal throughout the United States, the Affordable Care Act got passed, and it looks like gun control and illegal immigration legislation may get passed. The Children's Health Insurance Affordable Act was passed. A new START treaty was signed.

On the right, politicians bloviate about abortion, prayer in schools, family values, etc.. to draw in low information voters with intangible emotional issues. All shiny trinkets having no economic value to their base, while at the same time promoting policies that shift anything of economic or affluential value into the hands of corporations and the rich.

I don't really see to much difference between that strategy, and the dem strategy.

Yes, the Affordable Care Act was better than nothing. But notice that single payer was taken off the table before the process even began because single payer would have squeezed the health insurance companies' profits. And every single instance, without exception that I can note, when the good of the public had to be balanced against the special interests, the dems have bent over.

They drowned the left in their bahtub.

The proposed stimulus was at least 2/3 too small in toto and a majority of that inadequate measure was completely ineffective, non-stimulative, tax cuts (the only prescription in the republican handbook).

Gay Marriage is great, if not decades too late, and kudos to Vice President Biden for forcing the issue.

The ACA is not much more than an incredibly lucrative blowjob to the insurance industry that, even though it still hasn't yet been fully implemented, has resulted in increased costs, dozens of lawsuits, and hundreds of exceptions for businesses big enough to make political "contributions" while small businesses are trying to figure out how to pay for it along with the low-income workers that are lucky enough to not be part of the 15 - 20 million just written off and don't even figure into it.

Gun control is nothing but a sop to quell a momentary blip in awareness caused by white suburbanites being slaughtered. Once they've got whatever useless measure through and the slaughter goes back to the poor and the brown in the neighborhoods we don't live in, we can all go back to ignoring the real problem.

Undocumented immigration follows the same familiar pattern, keep the virtual slaves working to make the rich richer and wages down, then hold out a phantom carrot for them, give it a nice, and ironically appropriate name, the Dream Act, then tell them that if they are willing to sacrifice their kids and go to the back of the line, then maybe someday they can stay legally.

As for the women, well fuck them their only girls anyway. Don't believe in the magical sky daddy? Fuck you too. Want to exercise you right to control your own body? Too bad, so sad, sucks to be you. But some booze and get a prescription, they pay the freight around here.

As for START, we don't need nuclear bad guys to frighten you into bankruptcy anymore, we have the perfect new bogey-man, the terrorist. So perhaps maybe someday we will reduce our capacity to end all life on earth to 10 or 15 times.

Just ask RW manny.

With a name like Moonbat you might be related to Frank Zappa.

I am right there with you.

but the rest of us are still here. We've just been silenced by the corporate media.

But no draft. Not now, not unless the barbarian hordes are pouring over our borders. It is one of those things that will never be equal. Ever.

I certainly respect your opinion, and hate war, but I think that the draft still serves as something of a safeguard against ill-conceived adventures. And I would argue for no exemptions.

The alternative is to force kids into service by purely economic means.

By way of information, I was drafted into the Army in 1967 and served in the infantry in Vietnam.

for dipshit to invade Iraq.

protesting. Hello. And thirdly, those that "frothed" did so because they were going to be affected. The draft would have open their fucking eyes to the fact that their children might be sent off to fight Dickhead Cheney's war.

And that was because there was no draft. We had years of anti-war demonstrations in the US during Vietnam, and that was because of the draft.

My personal belief is that in order to declare war, or send in more than 1,000 troops for longer than 5 days, congress must initiate a draft, AND raise taxes to pay for the cost of the war.

Nobody wanted a repeat of 1972.

Besides, they weren't working. Without any media coverage, the protests made us feel good but nobody else noticed.

4 students were shot and killed in May of 1970 and yet 300,000 showed up for a protest in Washington, DC in 1971.

The early protests received little media coverage, they didn't stop. There was the election of 1964 and the election of 1968, they didn't stop the protests. The simple fact is that because most people are not directly affected by the war, they don't care enough to protest and create civil disturbances.

People were protesting the whole time but the war went on, and on.

The protests continued during the elections, and were quite large by the 1968 and 1972 election cycles.
The 1968 election went badly for us, and the 1972 election went horribly.
In 1972 we had a candidate that fully embraced the anti-war movement and was fully embraced by it.
A very large majority of Americans wanted the war to end by that time. We lost 49 states.

that they allow to live.

as an incentive to froth-stirring.

And I think the war was a helluva lot less popular than it appeared to be. The news media were full managed. How many stories did you see about the demonstrations worldwide? There were all kinds of middle-class old farts joining the kids & obstructing traffic, even in the small towns of northern Wisconsin.

If there had been a draft, we would be at war with Iran.

They can always make up some BS to get us into war. It works every time.
The draft never stopped them from doing this.
It makes it easier, since the mechanism to funnel cannon fodder into the sausage machine is already in place.

"If there had been a draft, it would have been much tougher for dipshit to invade Iraq."

Because the rich always have 'connections'.

My brother was drafted in 1967...glad you made it back.

Even some of the royalty in Europe recognized they had to lead from the front in wars. That was part of the aspect of Noblesse Oblige. Today, in our country we went from Noblesse Oblige to the Cheney Chickenhawk, deferment gang whose rallying cry is "I had something better to do."

I am infantry soldier, airborne ranger. Sometimes my feelings of service are replaced with feelings I got suckered. Oh well.

and I also appreciate your sometime feeling of having been suckered. My brother was on his second tod when he was killed. When he was home for R & R between tours, I couldn't help but feel he had been suckered as well. I kept it to myself as there was nothing to be done about it.

I think I detest the Chickenhawks as much as I do child molesters...so many of our young service people are only a few years beyond childhood themselves.

The generals don't support a draft because of all the discipline problems they had during Vietnam.... IMHO, most of the generals have devolved into Chickenhawks themselves...If they had to lead from the front, I wonder how many of them would be so willing to support wars and 'surges'.

My sincere best wishes for your continued safety.

I would like to think he died fighting for the very best of the values our country can demonstrate. Those values have shown through with Lincoln, RFK, JFK, MLK, and Rosa Parks. When I think of them I feel much less played.

I will keep your brother in my thoughts as a fallen comrade.

Yes,, it is always better to focus on the positive. It is the job of those of us at home to work harder to keep fine people like yourself out of harm's way whenever it is unnecessary to put you into harm's way.

and when their kids are teenagers, the whole family will simply decamp for someplace the kids can finish their educations in how to be movers and shakers without being threatened by a draft.

The rest of us will have to get creative.

We really don't need to worry about them.... It's the children and grandchildren of our congress critters that need to be added to the canon fodder pool. The children of the very well off. Plus, along with the draft I'd pass a law saying congress must raise taxes on the top 10% to pay for said war. That would make everyone think long and hard. IMHO

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Women weren't even allowed to volunteer for what men were being forced to do.

but that didn't stop us from joining our brothers, friends, and lovers in protesting. Outdated mores.

I remember the left, we protested against the draft because it provided cannon fodder for unjust wars.
There was nothing fair about the draft. As Dick Cheney.
Yet eliminating the medical exemption that Cheney exploited would be grossly unfair to those who are truly unable to serve for medical reasons. The unequal access to medical care in this country also ensures that many such conditions go undiagnosed.

There is no way a draft could ever be fair.

Some supporters of the draft point to the draft in Israel as an example, but the Ultra-Orthodox are exempt from it! Some example!

they refuse to answer. I ask to explain how they differ from the left and they refuse to answer.

Us lefties are here. Keeping a low profile as the Democratic Party has a bounty for us. But there are millions of us working outside the party thru organizations like moveon, PCCC, PDA, etc. to reform the Democratic Party.

We arent looking for a third party, we are looking to kick out the damn Republicans that came creeping in when their party went to shit.

And by the way. If the Democratic Party loses ground in 2014 like they did in 2010, it will be because the centrists arent too worried. The left will be fighting all the way.

[font size=3]CENTRISM!!!.... because it is so EASY!
You don't have to STAND for ANYTHING,
and get to insult those who DO!

... is Good Enough for ME!

If both the Left and the Right hate it,
then it MUST be GOOD,
so I'm FOR it!!!!

(I've actually seen THAT rationale justifying policy being sold as a "compromise" posted at DU more than once.)


[center][/center][/font]

After all, if you own both teams, you can't lose.

have a hard time understanding why some Democrats are fooled.

because you can't, none of it came from your own mind! It is that easy. Said loudly enough with enough bullying it becomes even fun!

And if they DO get pushed into some sort of commitment on issues, it's warmed over Reaganite free market bullshit with some added element of social issue libertarianism.

I'm shocked, I've never seen any of our "pragmatic" centrists stand for anything. Honestly, I sometimes prefer dealing with libertarians. At least they are honest and stand for something. It's an extremely foolish and childish something, but it's more than I can say for the centrists here.

I mostly refer to the occasional posts I see them make responding to issues that are going on. THAT'S where I see the warmed over Reaganomics. And when they get called on that, THEN we get the, "I am too left because I believe in gay marriage." Or "I believe in first trimester abortion rights", etc. Like those things, as important as they are, makes somebody a leftist. But it's a seriously rare thing to even get that out of them.

because they stand for whatever the leaders of the party stand for and those have changed so fast it leaves your head spinning.

Working from the left in a tea party state. Continuing with the same human values I had when I was growing up. Equality for all in all ways and helping others to be able to gain that equality. For me that is the basic moral value this party used to stand for and the one that will get it back on track. It should not be so hard to attain but when both parties work against it it becomes head bangingly frustrating and almost impossible. We need an actual liberal leader who will speak out and follow through (that follow through is pretty important IMO).

Should be real easy for a so-called centrist to answer. I would hope that only the right wing-nuts would support giving the president the authority to detain US citizens indefinitely w/o due process.

but I think that is a HUGE assumption these days. Due process is not supported much at all anymore, at least from what I am getting from the people around me.

kind of passes for "believing in stuff".

of involuntary servitude.

Tears come knowing that real Democrats are still about.

seems like a radical these days.

I Think it has been murged into the Borg.
I can only think of that speach that guy gave on The Newsroom...We were great once...

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through assassinations, violent crackdowns, and COINTELPRO from without, and through hubris and factionalism from within.

And we're all now literally the poorer for it.

There was a brief moment in the mid-'70s when the Left ascended after the power elites kind of imploded from scandals and a hugely unpopular failed war...but the elites recovered quickly as they always tend to do.

and I miss it to. It'll always be with you till the end it's just a bizarre world now to think those are fringe ideals/concepts.

Hang in there, maybe we'll see those things come back.

-p

somehow they sound "refreshed" these days. Sort of going back to Woodie Guthrie...and after.

WINDS OF THE OLD DAYS
(Words and Music by Joan Baez)

The lady's adrift in a foreign land
Singing on issues both humble and grand
A decade flew past her and there on the page
She read that the prince had returned to the stage
Hovering near treacherous waters
A friend saw her drifting and caught her
Unguarded fantasies flying too far
Memories tumbling like sweets from a jar

And take me down to the harbor now
Grapes of the summer are low on the bough
Ghosts of my history will follow me there
And the winds of the old days will blow through my hair

Breath on an undying ember
It doesn't take much to remember
Those eloquent songs from the good old days
That set us to marching with banners ablaze
But reporters, there's no sense in prying
Our blue-eyed son's been denying
The truths that are wrapped in a mystery
The sixties are over so set him free

And take me down to the harbor now
Grapes of the summer are low on the bough
Ghosts of my history will follow me there
And the winds of the old days will blow through my hair

Why do I sit the autumnal judge
Years of self-righteousness will not budge
Singer or savior, it was his to choose
Which of us knows what was his to lose
Because idols are best when they're made of stone
A savior's a nuisance to live with at home
Stars often fall, heroes go unsung
And martyrs most certainly die too young

So thank you for writing the best songs
Thank you for righting a few wrongs
You're a savage gift on a wayward bus
But you stepped down and you sang to us

And get you down to the harbor now
Most of the sour grapes are gone from the bough
Ghosts of Johanna will visit you there
And the winds of the old days will blow through your hair

lovely and sad that...

"Left is when we have a draft that ensures that the kids of the rich die in equal numbers with the poor in our wars. "
Could not agree more. This one is important.

The poor make up a lot more than 1% of the population, and they have a lot more kids per capita.

Of course the rich would send their kids overseas rather then let them be fed into the sausage machine.

There will come a time when things will get so bad that people will look to the left again. Sadly, many people will have to suffer for a long time before that day comes again.

I would prefer that they call for a war and no one shows up.

What would America look like today?

Cheney would be serving his fourth term.

Social Security would be cut to the bone.

We would still be occupying Iraq.

The EPA would be wiped out.

There would be at least two more major wars.

Gasoline would be over $5 a gallon.

We would have more money being spent on nuclear power and less on solar and other alternatives.

Just about any progress made in the last 40 years would be wiped out. It only took Cheney 8 years to make the country go backwards.

***********

I wonder: How does the right see the left? From my experience these are some of the ways the left are seen.

Big Gov. intruding on individual freedoms. (But the right loves this aspect via laws against abortion, drugs, sex education, and building codes)

Left wants to take money from the rich and give to the poor. (So then we should end public roads, make defense penniless, end regulations on pollution?)

Left wants to regulate corporations (So we should let polluters go free to pollute, slavery to continue unabated, and bad products be sold?)

**********

If it wasn't for the left and social security and medicare, the country would economically shrivel and die. If it wasn't for environmental laws we would all be dying from pollution. If it wasn't for the left Cheney would have made this country into a nazi styled fascist country that would have made Hitler proud.

So to those who think we are to Left in this country I say go live in Somalia you traitorous bastards.

The Left died on Dis-Occupied Wall Street,
like a brave last gasp it was,
and a lovely sight to behold & be part of.

Now? We are all OWS I guess, in our way.

And it's one of the things that give me hope.

on Occupy... as I said recently elsewhere on DU.

Dead or not, it's already done TONS of good stuff, beyond "changing
the conversation", like exposing so graphically how beautiful it gets,
when citizens refuse to concede their constitutional rights to speech and
assembly, but instead, actually exercises those rights, in order to
petition the government for grievances. It also exposed how butt-
ugly our Corporatist Oligarchy responds with their militarized police,
when citizens stand up to be counted.

I believe books are just now being written about it, as we speak, though
I can't be certain, as I know of none in particular.

a draft if there was a Peace Department that is equal but separate from DoD.

...only one Dem [Jim McDermott] from the WA State Reps in Congress has promised not to vote for anything that cuts these programs.

Basically, modern Dems are equivalent to Republicans of 20-30 years ago. We don't have a liberal party in America. The Dems are the conservatives, and the GOP is a right-wing-wacko group.

Sad to see what's become of the United States...

...and what can be salvaged at this point?

...and the Democratic Party leadership won't even go as far as Ronald (Fu*****) Reagan in pledging to protect Social Security.
THAT is how FAR to the Conservative Right our Party Leadership has lunged.

The rest of the times we're "fuckin' retards" or something like that.

to end the chickenhawks. His proposal didn't go anywhere.

The dems have moved so far to the right on economic issues that the Wealthy Elites can advance their agenda without the Repubs. This has the added benefit of allowing the " People " to believe that they have won a few victories. Then, as loyal Dems, they will cheer as constitutional rights are stripped, social programs are cut and the State turns its back ( and its intelligence gathering apparatus ) on the populace.
We will still be allowed to fight over women's rights, gay rights, and other non-financial issues. We will be allowed to fight over gun rights, but sooner or later they will be lost too. Once America has been been converted to third-world status, gun rights will have to go; do you really think rich people want all those newly created poor people running around with guns?
Unions have to go, too. Don't want people organizing. People must be divided.

The left still exists, it just doesn't have a following. Its easier to just go with the status quo; be indignant when you are supposed to and silent when required. Remember: You "won" the election. If Social security benefits are cut,it must be necessary. If the Post Office is dissolved because it is broke( because it is required to fund its pension holding at a 75 year level ), its not just to bust the union.

Its necessary.

Because you "won" the election.

on TV. So even "liberal" stations like MSNBC never put it all out there like that so that the bigger picture makes sense. But I'm glad you can post it on DU, and I hope everyone reads it.

Here, have my last heart...

Just a suggestion. I would really like your comments to be read by more DUers.

...when one of them is executed for murder.

with what once seemed like a majority of the Dem party.

Too many Dems play center field now.

and it completely fucking SUCKS

Of course ...it doesn't help to throw professional progressive lefties under the bus either. Oh well ...people need idols ...I guess. When you don't care about people you become lost ...as a person and as a political party.

I understand the theory just do not for one second believe that ever worked in practice.

However, it seems that most "rich kids" went off to fight in WWII. So had our politicians. Truman (WWI), Ike, JFK, LBJ, Nixon, Ford, Carter, even Reagan, & BushI had all served on active duty in the military. Carter served after WWII, being too young for the war.

I don't count BushII's TANG "service" as anything but a draft-dodging maneuver, BTW.

I think we could write a law that makes sure the rich kids share in the risks & misery of military service in case of war. And I think that if we did that, it would decrease the enthusiasm for war among those like Willard, who demonstrated in favor of Vietnam & then got "missionary" deferments.

I thank you for the thread ... it's a good reminder, but I wouldn't call those stances "Left" - at least not with a "Capitol L." They strike me as more or less classic Liberalism - and, for that matter, in polls, when divorced from political connections, most people agree with many of them.

I could go down the list, but will suffice myself with noting that "Left" is not "when the government regulates the excesses of the rich and extends a helping hand to those at the lower margins of society, guaranteeing a chance at a decent life for all, rather than clamping down on the poor and helping the rich." The Left does not seek to ameliorate the differences between rich and poor, it seeks to eradicate them.

I'm left. I consider most "liberal" proposals sops and disguises to make sure the Oligarchy is secure from the rest of us. I consider that to be the function of Liberalism. Most humans just want to be reasonably comfortable and secure - give them that, and they won't start to wonder who should own the means of production, or question the Police State, or worry too much about the mostly invisible outliers like those in poverty in inner cities or deep in rural country (look at the 50's for a reasonably good example of what I mean).

Nonetheless, I thank you for the thread ... a good reminder of what the D Party used to at least nominally stand for, and where it is now.

But when so-called "centrists" co-opt the terms "liberal" and "progressive" to mean neoliberalism, I use "left" to differentiate myself from them.

Well put and of course, I agree.

I'm now anathema to my own party.

I didn't go anywhere. I was thrown under the bus as part of the "fringe," the "loony left," who wouldn't get in bed with neoliberal Democrats.

I miss having a party I thought might represent me, in some small ways, at some times.

and will keep working to wards it.