Friday, July 06, 2007

A Progressive Future

Hoot's buddy thinks the leftys are ripe for a comeback:

Make no mistake about it. A great swing of the pendulum is about to get underway. This is not a short clip. It will take a quarter of an hour if you don't pause and reflect on what she says. If you do, it may take longer. But Digby, this previously pseudonymous blogger, comes across as one of the most articulate voices of what is emerging as a new American Left. (That would be "new" with a lower-case "n" and "American" with a capital "A.")
Hoot's Buddy thinks that "progressivism" is popular in America. In fact "Digby" the blogger interviewed in the article Hoot's mentioned says this:
I actually feel very confident about it because there is this new political debate going on that is allowing us to make arguments that have not been made in a very long time. I don't think people have heard the progressive argument explicitly in a long time, not filtered through the right wing and the conventions of their media and interpreted by the mainstream media. I think as a lot of people are going directly into the blogosphere people are going to be hearing our arguments again. Now, whether we make them all and whether they are effective you never know; I don't think there are any guarantees there. But I think there is a new political debate that has opened up at a very propitious time for us as a result of the unfortunate failure of the conservative project under George W. Bush, and let's just say there will never be another time like this one.
Her mistake is in thinking that Democrats got elected to implement Progressive (socialist) policy. They did not. They got elected because of Republican corruption.

The "progressive" argument is "rob from the rich and give to the poor". Which is how I understand it. Robbery was never a popular American value. Hard work is way more popular. By a great margin. In any case "rob from the rich..." has its selling points.

However the actual performance turns out to be "rob from the poor and give to the well connected". This is not going to fly.

Digby thinks the low approval rate of Congress doesn't matter because the "progressives" have a vision of utopia. Evidently she didn't understand the last election.

Another case of blinded by the light.

My mother and I are on different sides of the political divide. When we are done arguing politics we kiss and make up with "but they are all crooks".

Americans did not give up on Republicans because they wanted different policies. They gave up on them because of corruption. With Congressional approval sliding lower than the President's some might say the body politic is nostalgic for Republican corruption.


Here is the home of Take Back America.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Mr. Simon: You are wrong when you say "Americans did not give up on Republicans because they wanted different policies. They gave up on them because of corruption." Most Republicans in Congress have supported the war in Iraq. Most Democrats have come to oppose it. That's why Americans generally gave up on the Republicans. Haven't you noticed that two-thirds of Americans are opposed to this war? How can you say that Americans don't want a different policy? Do you still think it's only the media who are opposed to the war?

M. Simon said...

Some of the so called opposition to the war consists of folks who want a winning strategy.

You will note that the Dems. despite their majority in Congress can't quite muster enough votes to end the war.

Why is that?

Politicians suddenly have their fingers in their own pockets instead of in the wind? I suppose it is possible. There could be such a thing as generally honest politicians, as opposed to the occasionally honest one.

What are the odds?