Struggling to form an analysis: is liberalism dead?

I generally have ideas about things. I tend towards being opinionated. I have a view of the world that is robust enough that I can fit a surprisingly large amount of new stuff into it without much trouble. But lately I’ve been feeling confused and outmatched by a world of politics that is more than I can fathom.

Some of you are no doubt laughing right now because you tend to disagree with my analysis anyway. But seriously. I was listening to CBC radio tonight, hoping to hear something intelligent about the American midterm elections and I was lucky enough to catch most of an interview with Chris Hedges. He’s a well credentialed journalist from The Nation Institute. It’s worth noting that he wrote for the NY Times which he refers to as an elitist newspaper that lies and has contributed to the mass sellout of the working class.

I recommend listening to the interview here. It has left me re-examining my mish mash of political beliefs.

Lately I find myself in conversations with folks where I seem to oscillate erratically in my opinions about when to act in principled ways and when to act strategically (read: expediently). Has Obama done a good job? Is he a hypocrite? Are the Democrats worse than the Republicans? Are they the same? Oi.

Here’s an article that I haven’t read yet, but I will: http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/the_world_liberal_opportunists_made_20101025/P100/