In preparation for this, my final column, I did something I had never done before and will probably never do again: I reread all 46 of my previous columns. I couldn’t help noticing a few emergent themes.
Many of my columns touched on what I perceive as the sorry state of today’s progressive movement, of which I consider myself a member. I have criticized my peers for their inability to come to grips with their own racist attitudes and behavior, which is part of the reason the progressive movement remains largely white, elitist and politically ineffective. I’m talking about white people who would see nothing wrong with telling a black person to stop using the word nigger because it is offensive.
As these progressives are busy repressing their own racist attitudes, they are also busily cleansing the media of all other expressions of racism, sexism, homophobia or anything else they disagree with. This acceptance of censorship as a legitimate form of activism is by far the most disturbing trend I have noticed in young progressives. It is particularly disturbing for somebody like me who believes religiously in freedom of speech, even racist speech.
We need to actively confront discriminatory opinions, but too often progressives seem outraged solely by the fact that such an opinion was expressed. The person who expressed the unacceptable opinion is vilified, no matter how pervasive that opinion might be, and the media organization that allowed such an opinion to be expressed is also vilified and attacked.
People cannot stand for some freedoms (reproductive freedom, sexual freedom) and not for other freedoms (freedom of expression). The sooner progressives learn this, the sooner they will be taken seriously.
The reason I spent so much time criticizing progressives over the last year and a half is because Americans have powerful enemies, in addition to terrorists, who are trying to destroy America from the inside, and it is up to the progressive movement to stop them. Those enemies are, of course, religious fundamentalists.
The ultra-conservative right wing’s attempt to legislate a biblical moral system is nothing short of an attempt to transform America into a pseudo-theocracy where politicians are mere puppets for an elite religious class. Some might say I am exaggerating, but it is happening, law by law, judicial nominee by judicial nominee, election by election.
Additionally, one of the most important institutions for a well-functioning democracy, a free press, has drastically declined in the last few years. The problem with the press is not whether it is liberally or conservatively biased, but whether it is willing or able to serve as an independent watchdog against all forms of power, whether left or right, corporate or governmental. Unfortunately, time and time again the press has proved unwilling to shine a light on the abuses of the powerful, leaving the American public vastly unprepared to protect its interests from its own elected officials.
So what can be done? How can we fight this slow erosion of
progressive values?
Libertarians and secular Republicans, who have lost their political control to religious fundamentalists’ bend on building a global military and religious hegemony, need to take their party back.
Progressives and secular Democrats, who have lost political control to power-hungry elitists who feign populism in order to hide their corporate interests, need to take their party back.
And people of faith, whose religion gives them the strength to love and accept rather than judge, need to take back their churches, synagogues and mosques from those who have twisted the Bible to further an agenda of hate.

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