Tuesdays with Bobbi: Dear Vecino, Don't be fooled by fake progressives

An article in this week's The Nation, Will Phony Populists Hijack the Fight Against Inequality? discusses inequality and how politicians can use this buzzword to appeal to progressives, the 99%, even folks in the Occupy movement.  What happens when fake progressives hijack the words, the language, the discussion of any issue is the cynical leave-behind of little action, futile measures, and in some cases, actual worsening of the problem with the supposed solutions.

Around the Inland Empire, I have heard numerous folks talk about how they are progressive. Today, I received an email from Tom Swann of Veterans for Peace, about a candidate for Assembly in the Palm Springs area who recently declared that she had always been a "Progressive Democrat." Tom noted, no, in fact, during a previous campaign over 10 years ago, she was the lowest vote-getter in a Republican primary.

As more people tire of the same old rhetoric and solutions offered by moderate Democrats and Republicans, they are beginning to realize that the bold solutions of the progressive movement are what has solved some great challenges before and could again. The phonies know this, and are cynical, political, and unprincipled enough to jump onto the bandwagon, happily wearing a wool cap, advocating bold solutions, pronouncing nearly socialist rhetoric and beyond, but actually pushing more of the same with all the usual suspects.

Dear Vecino, we will have to be very watchful for what big teeth they have.