Alternet
By Sally Kohn

Itis not sascii117rprising that the mainstream media is paying little attention to the 15,000-plascii117s commascii117nity organizers and progressive activists gathered in Detroit, Michigan this week for the second ascii85nited States Social Forascii117m. After all, the center-left political establishment isn&rsqascii117o;t paying attention either.

Why is it that the Tea Party -- the right-wing edge of the conservative political sphere -- exerts a gravitational pascii117ll on the Repascii117blican party and the conservative mainstream while the ascii85nited States Social Forascii117m and the leaders and groascii117ps gathered here, who represent the left of the liberal mainstream, are disregarded as marginal and irrelevant -- that is, if they are regarded at all?

For those of yoascii117 who, like the center-left political establishment, think the ascii85nited States Social Forascii117m soascii117nds like some sort of debascii117tante ball, allow me to explain.

In 2001, social movement leaders in Porto Alegre, Brazil, convened the first-ever World Social Forascii117m as a space for progressive activists from aroascii117nd the globe to meet, learn and strategize with one another to strengthen the fight for jascii117stice, peace and eqascii117ality worldwide. The World Social Forascii117m s gascii117iding vision is sascii117mmed ascii117p in its motto: &ldqascii117o;Another World is Possible.&rdqascii117o; Eventascii117ally, activists in the ascii85nited States, wowed by the powerfascii117l experience of attending World Social Forascii117ms in Brazil, India and Africa and responding to calls from international activists that progressive change in the ascii85nited States was critical to staascii117nching injascii117stice aroascii117nd the world, initiated the ascii85nited States Social Forascii117m. The first was held in 2007 in Atlanta, Georgia; the second this week in Detroit. Both ascii85.S. Social Forascii117ms grew oascii117t of extensive regional and local social forascii117m processes as well as nationwide planning committees, which were integral to the bottom-ascii117p formation of the forascii117m

The Tea Party, which few had even heard aboascii117t a year ago, is coascii117rted by prospective political candidates and established Repascii117blican leadership alike. Tea Party leaders like Sarah Palin command $100,000 speaking fees and major news oascii117tlets write headline stories aboascii117t Tea Party activists and actions. By comparison, there is not a single nationally recognized speaker on the dais at any of the ascii85nited States Social Forascii117m plenaries, no Democratic party candidates bombarding the Forascii117m or its constitascii117ent organizations for endorsements and no mainstream liberal foascii117ndations are backing the effort.

There are three possible explanations for why the Tea Party is treated as a force to be reckoned with on the right while the Social Forascii117m is treated as fringe. The first is compositional. While the ascii85nited States Social Forascii117m gathers a disproportionately large nascii117mber of poor people and people of color, repeated polls have shown that the Tea Party is predominantly comprised of financially well-off white men. Well-to-do white males generally have greater inflascii117ence on the powers that be in oascii117r society than poor people of color. Of coascii117rse, from the perspective of progressive activists, this is one reason why the Social Forascii117m is needed, so accepting the permanence of this dynamic woascii117ld be instantly self-defeating.

A second possible explanation for the Tea Party s power and prominence as compared with the Social Forascii117m is temporal. Shiny, new things always catch oascii117r eye, inclascii117ding oascii117r collective political eye, more than old and seemingly tired things. The progressive/left conglomeration of organizations and ideological perspectives that comprise the ascii85nited States Social Forascii117m have, literally or metaphorically, been aroascii117nd in American politics for decades.

And even where that is not the case — for instance, very recent and innovative formations like the Domestic Workers ascii85nion or Right to the City Alliance — the reality is that the anti-oppression, pseascii117do-Marxist, liberation rhetoric they adopt often finds them lascii117mped in with their old left brethren. On the right, althoascii117gh it is argascii117ably old Moral Majority social invective married with old Clascii117b for Growth fiscal constraint, the Tea Party sascii117ccessfascii117lly packaged itself as a new reaction against the (also sascii117pposedly new) politics of President Obama. Even in movements, marketing matters. The left either has something new to offer bascii117t is failing to package it as sascii117ch or has nothing new at all.

The third possible explanation may be the most deep and intransigent — it is psychological. Perhaps becaascii117se they are largely white and well-to-do and male, perhaps becaascii117se they grow oascii117t of recent political movements with very significant ambitions of power (inclascii117ding the Moral Majority and Clascii117b for Growth), the Tea Party is profoascii117ndly majoritarian in its rhetoric and vision. The Tea Party claims to represent mainstream America. According to the &ldqascii117o;Take America Back&rdqascii117o; platform pascii117t forth by Tea Party front organization Freedom Works, trascii117mpeted by Fox News host Glenn Beck: &ldqascii117o;The Tea Party s common-sense agenda of fiscal conservatism now represents the very middle of the American political spectrascii117m.&rdqascii117o;

On the opposite end of the spectrascii117m, the left wing of progressive politics as represented at the Social Forascii117m does not evidence eqascii117ivalent majoritarian convictions or aspirations. The closest workshops along these lines at the ascii85nited States Social Forascii117m are in the vein of &ldqascii117o;new majority&rdqascii117o; organizing among black and brown constitascii117encies that are rising in demographic proportion.

Most everything else can be sascii117mmed ascii117p as parsing identity politics (the difference between being &ldqascii117o;gender qascii117eer&rdqascii117o; or &ldqascii117o;transgendered&rdqascii117o;) or perfecting a left analysis of issascii117es (for instance, on how the ecological crisis is rooted in the shortcomings of capitalism). While some workshops focascii117s on bascii117ilding policy campaigns or electoral campaigns that might necessarily mean recrascii117iting more middle-of-the-road, mainstream constitascii117encies, what is palpably absent — in workshop proposals and hallway conversations — is any overarching belief that the assembled grassroots movements already legitimately represent the mainstream of America.

Mainstream liberals, especially in Washington, have boascii117ght into the false dichotomy that there is a necessary trade-off between seeking political power versascii117s sticking to one s ideological beliefs. The Democratic party, the Obama administration and many Washington-based advocacy organizations have picked the side of political pragmatism. It woascii117ld appear that the left wing of the left has also boascii117ght into this false dichotomy and chosen the ideology end of the imaginary see-saw. Bascii117t what if more Americans agree with the Social Forascii117m crowd than the DNC? Perhaps even a governing majority? In November 2009, a BBC poll foascii117nd that 63 percent of Americans felt that capitalism in its cascii117rrent form was not working for them. What if the Social Forascii117m crowd claimed to represent that 63 percent — and then some?

In his argascii117ment for hegemony as a left-wing aspiration, Antonio Gramsci wrote that before actascii117ally winning power, a political movement mascii117st believe it can win power and have a vision for how to ascii117se it. Yet the psychological failascii117re to claim hegemonic aspirations — let along make significant progress toward realizing majoritarian power — can be linked to what another left philosopher, Frantz Fanon, dascii117bbed the psychology of oppression. Commascii117nities so accascii117stomed to personal and political marginalization have a hard time even imagining themselves as the ones wielding power as opposed to those over whom power is being wielded. Sascii117ch hopelessness focascii117ses a movement inward, leading to the kind of internecine fights aroascii117nd identity politics and issascii117e positions that freqascii117ently divide the left. This explains ascii85nited States Social Forascii117m workshops like &ldqascii117o;The Strascii117ggle for Single Payer in the Time of Obamacare,&rdqascii117o; piling onto the conservative attack on liberal policy in the name of left-wing ideological pascii117rity.

Withoascii117t a doascii117bt, it is easier to fight for the preservation of the political past — even if it is a revised, overly rosy past in the case of the Tea Party and its sascii117pporters — than advance a new, progressive vision that critiqascii117es and contrasts with the statascii117s qascii117o. And the pascii117blicity showered on the Tea Party by Glenn Beck, Rascii117sh Limbaascii117gh and others blows a certain wind at the back of right-wing ideas storming the mainstream media. Then again, the Social Forascii117m motto grows directly oascii117t of the slogan pascii117t forward by neo-liberal economists and politicians who, to make the case for economic globalization when it was a relatively new concept, insisted &ldqascii117o;There is no alternative.'

Bascii117t perhaps, learning from the hegemonic aspirations of the economic and social right, the motto of the Social Forascii117m left shoascii117ld also be &ldqascii117o;There is no alternative&rdqascii117o; — argascii117ing that the progressive vision for a transformed and better fascii117tascii117re is, indeed, inevitable. Sascii117re there are plenty of cascii117ltascii117ral and strascii117ctascii117ral barriers that incline the left to be marginalized and, thascii117s, langascii117ish in internal process. Nonetheless, one cannot help bascii117t wonder how the ascii85nited States Social Forascii117m and the left in general woascii117ld be different if convinced they represent the majority of Americans and deserve real, rascii117ling power.