By Steve Otto
Of all the years I can remember, this May Day has been the most quiet in my life-time. Most years someone here in Wichita, does something, whether it is Democratic Socialist of America (DSA) or the Peace and Social Justice Center-- Kansas or on rare occasions, a Marxist Leninist group (which are extremely rare here in this part of Kansas). But this year, May 1st came and went and I barely noticed it.
But I have not seen much action this year—a lot less than most years. It is almost as if most members of the left are in disillusionment. There almost seems to be a sense of frustration and demoralization. It seems universal among most members of the left.
Supreme Court Ruling against Roe v Wade demoralizes the left!
Especially demoralizing is the new US Supreme Court Ruling that is expected to over-turn Roe vs. Wade.
Social conservatives have out maneuvered the centrist US Democratic Party, which has failed miserably to win elections and protect not only abortion rights, but now gay marriage and other types of protections for transgender and gay people. At present the US has nearly no actual leftist representatives in the US House of Representatives or the Senate. We now have The Squad. That is just four people and until they got elected, the US had no socialist or anti-imperialist representation.
Maybe this is a wake-up call to the next generation. Many will grow up and grow old with less Medicare choices in their old age as well as way less or even no Social Security to retire on.
If conservatives hold on to this country, the future looks dim indeed. One thing that needs to change is for the Democratic Party to become more progressive and left-wing. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and all the members of The Squad have all been elected and re-elected proving the progressive candidates can get elected. As Bernie Sanders said in the last election, socialists as himself are electable.
