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« An Anti-War Activist Lied, Because No One Died | Main | Shocker: CBSNews Won't Release Rathergate Report To Public »
December 10, 2004

Go Left

A lot of moderates are squealing that substantial chunks of the Democratic Party seem intent on moving to the left.

Many argue that we need two viable poltical parties, and that a move to the hard left will destroy the Democratic Party, leaving us with a dysfunctional one-party politics.

Well, that's not really true. Nature abhors a vacuum, and were the left-liberal coalition to fragment or alienate the middle, it would quickly create two different competing coalitions. We'd have a real Realignment, a realignment in which voting blocs actually swap political affiliations. Who knows-- it might even turn out beneficial.

But there's another reason not to fret. The left-liberals have been convinced for some time that America really wants a left-liberal or "progressive" agenda, and that what's holding them back has been the political cowardice of the Democratic leadership and candidates. Just like on at least thirty-seven West Wing "cliffhangers," the solution to declining popularity is to stop being mealy-mouthed and moderate and equivocating and just give the people what they so desperately crave-- uncompromising, unabashed, unafraid old-school fire-and-brimstone economic populism and pacificism/UN "multilateralism."

Here's the thing: this theory will continue to distort Democratic politics until it is actually tried. Until it is given a shot to work -- or fail -- we're going to continue to have a Democratic Party which simply refuses to take a clear stance as to what they actually believe. So many Democratic positions aren't coherent political positions at all, but mere positionings, incoherent shuffle-steps between the left-liberal wing and the centrist-liberals of the party.

So, why shouldn't Howard Dean become the DNC chief? Sometimes you need to experiment; sometimes you need to gamble; sometimes you actually need to test a theory, to see if it works or finally put it to rest-- hopefully for good.

Howard Dean was, I thought, something of a crank (and not a particularly intelligent one at that), but I have to give him props for being, at least most of the time, pretty clear about his actual politics. Yes, he backpedalled and equivocated and flip-flopped himself, but not nearly as much as the eventual nominee John Kerry.

As is the case with George Bush: When you listened to Howard Dean, you had a pretty fair sense of what his thinking was, and what he would do (or at least try to do) were he to actually be elected.

I think that's sort of important in politics; don't you? It may make the Democrats more electorally-viable to continue to hedge and equivocate, but that does a disservice to democracy, because real democracy demands that people make an informed decision as to which candidates they prefer; and when half the country's candidates are continually obfuscating, flip-flopping, and outright pandering to differing audiences, such an informed choice becomes impossible.

I heartily endorse Howard Dean for leader of the Democratic Party, and not just in a cynical, licking-my-chops way. It's about time this country had an actual, honest-to-goodness, fully-informed choice as to what each of the parties stand for.

Howard Dean may be a little dumb, but that has its benefits; he's a little too dumb to be strategically dishonest.

Let's have four years of real, muscular, honest liberal advocacy. If it works (and actually I have a small fear it might) then fine, the people will respond well to it, and we'll have a better idea of this nation's political temperment.

And if it doesn't work-- also fine. The left-liberal agenda will be discredited to the point where even left-liberals accept the need to support DLC-style candidates and stop their endless whining about the need to "stand up the Republicans."

And what, precisely, is wrong with any of that?


digg this
posted by Ace at 02:09 PM

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