The War Among Progressives

Today Jeff and Corey take a close look at an fascinating new article by Valerie Tarico, published on Alternet with the title “Here’s Why Some Progressives Are Tearing Each Other Apart”. In the article Tarico argues that today’s political left is largely split into two major conflicting factions, each of whom are operating with two very different narratives around social progress.

The first of these narratives she calls The Social Liberal Story, which proclaims universal values and seeks to expand the circle of people who benefit from them. Tarico contrasts this narrative against that of the The Structural Oppression Story, which views history as the continuing struggle of certain groups being oppressed by certain others — and if you aren’t being oppressed, it can only mean that you are one of the oppressors, whether you are conscious of perpetuating oppression or not.

Both of these narratives are alive and well among liberals — and predictably, we integralists believe both contain true-but-partial wisdom that needs to be woven into a more mature framework for the political left (which, by the way, the author completely agrees with, and even offers her own integrative insight to this end).

And to go a step further, both of these leftist views need to be integrated with the various wisdoms found on the political right in order to achieve a more healthy and functional body politic. Listen as Jeff and Corey try to navigate the inherent truths and limitations of each of these views, and enfold them into a bigger and bolder vision of our ongoing political evolution.