I'm an old school Southern Democrat. I'm Progressive and extremely to the left of modern Democrats. I believe that everyone is entitled to a standard of living and that includes a home and a mode of transportation and a mode of communication and a way to provide for themselves. I hate how the New Southern vision was sabotaged by Reagan and the Republican Party. We could've had a more inclusive and diverse South. I'm from the Gulf Coast. When I was growing up the Gulf Coast was the last bastion of Southern Democratic dominance. Republicans have taken over our area and corrupted the minds of our people. Southern Democrats are often seen as a monolith but just like the overall Democratic Party it was a big tent. I believe we can revive the Progressive tradition in the South but it's going to take effort.
Honestly, this list proves my point more than yours. You’re treating every person I’ve mentioned as a package deal and then judging me based on the worst interpretation of each one. That’s not how intellectual influence works.
I can admire or find value in particular ideas from people while rejecting other things they believed or did. And there actually is a coherent thread running through my interests: human liberation, opposition to concentrated power, populism, anti-capitalism, individual autonomy and a fascination with people who challenged the political order of their time.
I’m a Creole Gulf Coast Southerner with a very eclectic, old-school intellectual worldview. Of course my influences aren’t going to look like a contemporary ideological reading list.
You see contradictions. I see a political worldview with a history behind it.
Also "give me free money"? I was reaching out to my fellow leftists because I'm going through hell.