NeoLeft

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The NeoLeft is a political movement in the NAL that began in the 1980s and seems to have moved to the forefront of leadership when one of its proponents, Albert Arnold Gore, Jr., was elected General Moderator in the year 2000.

In many ways the whole concept of the NeoLeft can be traced to The Opening of the American Mind (1982) written by Stelian Dukakis of Massachussets Bay (born 1930). Dukakis' openly said his motive for writing it was the premature death of his brother, Micah Panos Dukakis from a bicycle accident. Micah had been running for Lord Governor of the province at the time, and Stelian believed a brilliant political future had laid ahead for him.

Dukakis' book was essentially a history of political thought and action within the NAL for much of the XXth century. Its premise was that the liberal, socialistic and ecotopic movements of the past had been distracted and/or timid in achieving their goals. What was needed, Dukakis maintained, was a NeoLeft whose members were less deferential to traditional conceptions of diplomacy and less inclined to compromise principles even if that meant unilateral action.

Some overt goals espoused by those indentifying themselves as the (or at least "a") NeoLeft include:

  • An interventionist foreign policy in reaction to genuine tyranny and/or threats to the general peace.
  • Significantly expanded social programs, including universal health care and free public eduction through college.
  • Direct election of all major public officials, including the General Moderator and Judgeships.
  • Mandatory dismantling of private corporations above a certain size.
  • A League-wide public transportation system.
  • Criminalization of many so-called "white collar" crimes (including violation of environmental regulations). This would mandate actual jail time and the status of "convicted felon" as well as the fines usually imposed.
  • Absolute abolition of the Death Penalty.
  • De-criminalization of all addiction-related offenses in favor of mandatory treatment.
  • An international scientific effort to treat and ultimately cure AIDS.
  • Severing all ties between monarchies and the NAL that imply the latter are in any way subjects to the other.

It bears mentioning that many so-called NeoLeft advocates do not in fact agree with all or even most of the above. And many who do advocate various such policies reject the label NeoLeft. Nevertheless, the Gore Administration has become associated with the idea, at least in the wake of the Florida War and the efforts to create UNICOV, a de facto nationalization of the health industry.