In his final missive, Latte Leftie reflects on how he set the agenda for the huge progressive victories of the last decade.
Dear LL – Back when you began writing for Ciao in 2006 there was a buffoon in the White House, a Liberal in the Lodge, neoliberalism was running amok, tax-dodging multinational corporations were playing national governments for mugs, interminable wars in the Middle East were grinding on, serious global action on climate change was a pipe dream, Inner West property prices were ridiculous, Parramatta Road was a nightmare, refugees were being demonised, drug use and euthanasia remained illegal, and there was an unbridgeable gap between the identity politics enthusiasms of (ahem) inner city elites and the reactionary and venal concerns of the Left’s traditional, working-class constituency. Thanks in large part to your tireless and eloquent advocacy, the Overton Window has subsequently shifted. Given this is your swansong dispatch, I was hoping you could choose a favourite among your many progressive victories.
Nigel, Mascot
LL replies: What a different world it was back then, Nigel! There are so many heart-warming leftist triumphs to choose from. But if I had to nominate one, it would be my seminal role in changing the antediluvian uniform code at Newtown High School of the Performing Arts last year. We on the left do have to deal with the occasional (entirely inexplicable) defeat, but it’s profound social changes such as allowing upper-middle-class teenagers attending a performing arts school at the epicentre of Greens heartland to cross dress that reassures me that the long moral arc of the universe bends towards justice. Maintain the rage (and your unerringly accurate sense of perspective) until we meet once more, readerly comrade!