A Leftist on Rick Warren: Who Cares?

All morning I have been hearing that "the Left" is upset about the pick of Rick Warren to participate in the Obama inauguration. Let us use this point to begin to understand something about American politics.

There is NO LEFT in American politics. The left has been completely driven to the margins of politics during the past 30 years of America's giant jump to the right. How thoroughly the right captured the whole debate can be seen in the fact that liberals (really just slightly, if that, left of center moderates) are defined as "the Left."

Actual leftists, such as this writer, see Warren or any other religious figure at the inauguration as inappropriate due to its violation of the principle of separation of church and state. Liberals, on the other hand, are upset because he represents a different constituency. Liberals would be okay with a minister at the inauguration as long as he or she was sufficiently aligned with their theology. I, on the other hand, would be upset about any minister, even if it was Little Richard. It is the inauguration of a president not the coronation of a Pope. Keep religion out of it, up to and including preventing civil rights icon, the Rev. Joseph Lowery from praying. Yes, I said it.

It is not just a rejection of religion that leads to my "Who Cares," headline. It is the fact that at a moment when the Vice President has just admitted to war crimes all we can chatter about is a minister speaking at the inauguration. That, and the possibility that a Kennedy will be appointed to the House of Lords.

Bitching about every little choice of position, especially one as trivial as which minister will speak at the inauguration is missing the point.

We have been damaged and harmed as a nation by the wrong headed policies of the right over the past thirty, and especially the last eight years. It is important that we begin to move in the correct direction. There is much to do. There is much to undo.

The LEFT, or what is left of it, must not be caught up in the ridiculous minutiae of the moment. It is time to think long term and regroup. Before the true left, not the barely left of center moderates, can have any voice, it must recognize that for too long we have had to settle for whatever the Democrats managed to offer to us. Now is the time to force the center to hear the left.

To shift the debate, the focus on irrelevance must cease. Yes, it bothers me that Rich Warren is a homophobic bigot. So get out and reverse Prop 8.


Look for more on "The Difference Between Leftists and Liberals," by Ray Bawarchi, on this blog and other media sources in the near future.