American Liberalism Making a Come-Back

[marmar]

via AlterNet's PEEK:



American Liberalism Making a Come-Back

Posted by Daniel De Groot, Open Left at 3:10 PM on July 12, 2008.

Data from 1984-2006, shows a narrowing gap between cons and libs.



A good amount of attention has been paid to the ever larger party affiliation gap that Democrats are enjoying this year. Unfortunately there is not nearly so much attention paid to the underlying ideological alignment of voters (not much polling on it either). It is these beliefs that largely impact how elected officials behave with respect to policy, and particularly so for the Democratic party which still has a substantial conservative wing unlike the decimated ranks of the extinct or endangered liberal Republicans.

One thing I want to see the left doing more effectively is laying the blame for the disasterous policies of the Bush Administration and Republican congresses on the ideology that crafted them, namely conservativism. John McCain is still demonizing "failed" liberal ideas from the 70s and trying to raise the spectre of a second term for Jimmy Carter (a really weak and self-dating attack). Yet Democrats do not routinely link the failures of Iraq, Katrina and the Economy on the ideology that dreams up all these great ideas like invading unrelated countries after being attacked or handing a large state's energy system over to a bunch of unaccountable sociopaths happy to screw up the grid so prices will increase.

Despite the relative lack of effort in this area outside of blogs, I'm happy to report that some people are figuring it out, and the lead conservativism has on liberalism is the smallest is has been in decades (I went back as far as 1984): http://www.alternet.org/blogs/peek/91280/

......(more) the complete piece is at: http://www.alternet.org/blogs/peek/91280/

[calimary]

1. It's called connecting the dots - for the benefit of all those who routinely do not.

WE have to. We're the only ones willing and able to carry the ball. Time was we could have relied on the media to do it. That condition no longer exists, as we well know.

WE have to do it. In all the ways we can. Those of us who blog a lot need to do it. Those of us who eagerly seize the opportunities to chit-chat with friends about it need to do it. Those of us with podiums from which to speak need to do it. And you know all those sleazy emails we all get about how rotten and radical Muslim Obama is and how his middle name is Mohammed? WHY DON'T WE start some comparable emails? WHY NOT? We could start them the same way the mouth-breathers do - "WHAT ARE WE THINKING?????" - that was one I got recently that slammed Obama up one side of the room and down the other.

Just a thought. Fight fire with fire and all that.

[Captain Hilts]

2. It's not too late - hop on the bandwagon!

There's room for more - hop on in!

[roamer65]

4. I so wish I could have met FDR.

The best president ever!

[Captain Hilts]

6. Yeah...

the Roosevelts really rocked.

[Fumesucker]

3. After reading a multitude of venom dripping attacks on "liberal purists" here on DU..

I'm not so sure the OP is correct.

[skooooo]

5. Maybe we're just as "liberal" as you are, but..

...approach things differently.

[baby_mouse]

7. yeah.....

I note the inverted commas.

[Fumesucker]

10. There are certain things on which I will not compromise.

One of them being equality before the law.

The telecom immunity vote was a vote to make certain people uneqal before the law, all the rest of it was just smoke and mirrors to distract from the core purpose.

Our country has been down this road before and it has led to the disaster we are currently experiencing. Letting lawbreakers at the highest levels of government go unpunished invariably leads to even more egregious lawbreaking in the future.

I honestly can't understand why anyone who considers themselves a liberal would wish to allow this kind of thing to happen again.

"Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it." -George Santayana, The Life of Reason, Volume 1, 1905

[skooooo]

11. Anyone who is blinded by their own ideology..

...is screwed. Making all your decisions solely on ideology is the same thing that the Republicans have been doing over the last 8 years. It doesn't work. You have to look at situations for what they are and be strategic about getting where you want to go. That's what politics is.

[Fumesucker]

12. I've watched this happen twice before in my lifetime.

I learned the lesson of history in this regard.

It seems to me that you have not.

After Nixon I fully expected there not to be another Republican president for at least a couple of decades.

I made the mistake of thinking my fellow Americans had learned a lesson, history shows that they did not.

[baby_mouse]

13. Making all your decisions solely on ideology ...

... is, in fact, how decisions are made.

You are not an exception. Your view is an ideology.

[skooooo]

14. Only if you choose to live in a vacuum.

Meanwhile, those of us who deal with reality understand that sometimes you have to build coalitions and compromise to get where you want to go.

It's like putting a rat in a maze. The rat can't make a straight line to the cheese, but has to weave around, sometimes going a little bit away from the destination in order to actually get there.

Politics is about compromise. If you can't understand that, then it's no wonder you feel "cut off" from what's happening around you - feeling like the far-left is unfairly picked on. Change your perspective just a little bit and see that there are other possibilities.

Fundamentalism sucks.

[spag68]

18. So am I to assume

that the rest of us do not deal with reality, and only you do? Most liberal ideas are by definition rooted in pragmatism, that is , all deserve an equal chance and and care for others is not a bad thing. I'm pragmatic enough to know that compromise is necessary, but if it means harming the Masses to benefit a few, then it is not a compromise but a cop out. I distrust those that use the term "far-left". Do you consider unions far-left? are social policy's that benefit all of us like universal health care, far-left. If you are a conservative, so be it, but make your arguments from a position of honesty, as to your positions. All of us must deal in the reality of what is, you can' claim that right only for yourself.

[skooooo]

19. These things..

"Do you consider unions far-left? are social policy's that benefit all of us like universal health care, far-left."



....I believe in all of that.

[baby_mouse]

23. You didn't understand what I posted, pragmatism IS an ideology.

All decisions are based on ideology. An "ideology" is any system whereby you differentiate between choices.

Pragmatism is an ideology. Compromise is an ideology.

It is therefore ridiculous to pretend that pragmatism and "ideology" can be set up as in opposition to one another, it's like saying you'd "rather sit down and have breakfast than sit down and have a meal". The one is an example of the other.

And pragmatists are amongst the most dogmatic of all "idealists".

Where are you getting this "far left" thing?

[TahitiNut]

15. Exactly!

When folks use a word like "ideology" mostly as an epithet, they seem to lose sight of the irony ... maybe because of the log in their eye.

:dunce:

[skooooo]

16. I disagree.

It's pure ideology vs. idealogy & practicality. Two very different things.

[TahitiNut]

20. Actually ... no. You're employing terms apparently due only to their connotation to you ...

... irrespective of their denotation and without reference to a common ethical framework. Proponents of principle-based (or "dutiful") behavior seek positive outcomes every bit as much or more as those who call themselves 'pragmatists' ... and merely acknowledge an inability to see over a horizon (or predict impact in an uncertain future).

Sneeringly and condescendingly using terms like "purist" and "fundamentalist" and "ideologue" while reverently using terms like "practicality" and "pragmatism" and "compromise" conveys nothing more than bias. Such rhetorical superficialities convey neither comprehension nor integrity. Very often, "realist" and "pragmatist" are terms of aggrandizing self-reference employed by cowards and cheats in lieu of potentially more accurate terms like "easy" or "convenient" or "compliant."

[skooooo]

22. Ok....

:shrug:

[baby_mouse]

24. You rock.

[Fumesucker]

21. Nixon resigned in disgrace on August 8, 1974

Reagan was inaugurated on January 20, 1981

Americans collectively have the attention span of spider monkeys on crack.

I remember arguing with some of the blue collar workers I worked with back then, a lot of whom were older than I and should have damn well known better than to vote Republican, I think they are known as Reagan Democrats these days. I told them Republicans did not give the slightest damn about the average working stiff and I got called names, just like is happening here now.

[alarimer]

25. Protection the Constitution is NOT ideology.

There are some things that should be absolutely free from compromising with the enemy. And, yes, Republicans are the enemy.

[baby_mouse]

8. You want to see some goddamn optimism?

http://www.theonion.com/content/opinion/you_want_to_see_some_goddamn

[Brigid]

9. People know.

They know their jobs have been outsourced.
They know their homes are worth less than they owe on them.
They know how much gas costs.
They know their retirement savings are worth less all the time.
They know the health care system is broken.
They know the public school system is broken.
They know the answer to the famous question in the credit card ad campaign, "What's in your wallet?" Answer: Nothing.
They know we are losing some of our best and brightest in a pointless war that is never going to end.
They know which party has been in charge for the past eight years.
They know which party botched the response to the biggest natural disaster in the nation's history.
They know which party has been destroying their civil liberties.
They know which party has made this country a laughingstock in the world community.
They know which party has been getting away with all manner of high crimes and misdemeanors.
They know which party isn't even going to try to help a "nation of whiners" in a "mental recession."

It has taken a while, but people are at long last waking up.

[Guaranteed]

17. Yup, the power cycle has switched direction. For about the next 40 years,

liberal ideas will gain traction.