... and didn't you hate that?
I've been trying (in my usual long-winded way) from time to time to explain why GOP bashing is not quite the Democratic answer to tea-baggers and other protesters out there these days.
Frank Rich gets it in one sentence [although I had to suffer through an article about Glenn Beck to find it]:
As a political observer [and not as a shill for libertarianism] I think the mood of the public is increasingly populist, while the leadership of Democrats is increasingly progressive, and what's left of the leadership of the GOP is increasingly reactionary.
Despite the fact that populists and progressives both generally share a sense of the necessity for government activism, very little else actually unites them in terms of policy prescriptions, and some of the antipathy toward Barack Obama is as much anti-intellectual as it is racist.
I've been trying (in my usual long-winded way) from time to time to explain why GOP bashing is not quite the Democratic answer to tea-baggers and other protesters out there these days.
Frank Rich gets it in one sentence [although I had to suffer through an article about Glenn Beck to find it]:
Many of those Americans may hate Obama, but they don’t love the Republican establishment either.
As a political observer [and not as a shill for libertarianism] I think the mood of the public is increasingly populist, while the leadership of Democrats is increasingly progressive, and what's left of the leadership of the GOP is increasingly reactionary.
Despite the fact that populists and progressives both generally share a sense of the necessity for government activism, very little else actually unites them in terms of policy prescriptions, and some of the antipathy toward Barack Obama is as much anti-intellectual as it is racist.
Comments
I wish! You can't prove it by what is likely to come out of Congress in the way of healthcare "reform."
I think that's my point: the Dem leadership is significantly more progressive in an ideological sense than the rank-and-file.
In a sense it's like the fact that Newt and his leadership cadre were more conservative than the rank-and-file of the first GOP freshmen of 1994.
The leaders get confused by the party identifiers into believing that everyone is following them.
True progressives--much like libertarians except that I will grant there are more of you than us--are still a distinct minority in the party that is closest to their political beliefs.
Which is why the eventual health care bill (and there will be one) will be a hollow victory for everybody except ... the insurance companies and the pharmaceutical companies.
It will still leave millions without health insurance, but it will still cost us billions we ain't got.
http://www.publicpolicypolling.com/pdf/PPP_Release_National_9231210.pdf