How Democrats Became Liberal Republicans 

From the Fiscal Times courtesy of Hullabaloo:

The dirty secret is that Obama simply isn’t very liberal, nor is the Democratic Party any more. Certainly, the center of the party today is far to the right of where it was before 1992, when Bill Clinton was elected with a mission to move the party toward the right. It was widely believed by Democratic insiders that the nation had moved to the right during the Reagan era and that the Democratic Party had to do so as well or risk permanent loss of the White House.

It is only the blind hatred Republicans had for Clinton that prevented them from seeing that he governed as a moderate conservative – balancing the budget, cutting the capital gains tax, promoting free trade, and abolishing welfare, among other things. And it is only because the political spectrum has shifted to the right that Republicans cannot see to what extent Obama and his party are walking in Clinton’s footsteps.

And

In a little-noticed comment on Spanish-language television on December 14, Obama himself confirmed this typology of today's political spectrum. Said Obama, "The truth of the matter is that my policies are so mainstream that if I had set the same policies that I had back in the 1980s, I would be considered a moderate Republican."


More here.

This has been totally frustrating me for many years now: today's Democrats are essentially where the Republicans were in the late 80s.  I mean, subtracting the so-called "social issues," which nobody who matters cares about anymore.  The bottom line is that the Democratic Party long ago fully accepted the various conservative assumptions about how to deal with the economy.  The Republicans, in effect, won resoundingly the ideological battle over money and labor, and we've been in what amounts to their era for a very long time.

But what are essentially conservative positions, the positions of the Democratic Party, are now called "liberal."  And what are essentially far right-wing psycho national suicide positions, the positions of the Republican Party, are called "conservative."  That is, our public discourse refuses to acknowledge the two parties for what they are, conservative and ultra-conservative--needless to say, there is no longer such a thing as a liberal party in American politics, at least, one that plays a significant role.  And what's even more amazing is that lots of "liberals" in the Democratic Party don't understand what has happened.  I've been dressed down on more than one occasion by these types for not supporting Gore, or Kerry, or Obama, or whoever, because I'm somehow hurting the cause of liberalism when I support Nader or some other actual liberal.  When I respond that Democrats aren't actually liberal, I'm usually greeted with a blank stare from their uncomprehending fish eyes.

They don't get it.  They're not liberals.  I am.  I'm not on their side.  I don't owe them anything, certainly not my vote.  We don't share the same point of view.  Scolding me for not supporting their candidates is about as absurd as Republicans scolding me for not supporting theirs.  It's a total crock of shit, and yet I'm supposed to be a fool for insisting on my principles.

In this sense, Democrats are far worse than Republicans.  At least the GOP doesn't demand that I bury my identity.  The Democrats, in contrast, continue with this soul-destroying masquerade, continue to whip dissenters into line, and the nation moves ever to the right, even while they congratulate themselves for being more enlightened and compassionate than the Republicans.  Idiots.

So this is where the nation is.  We've just reelected an old school conservative to the Oval Office.  He is hostile to the working man, and very, very friendly with corporate forces which do an end run around democracy with their money.  Everybody believes Obama is a liberal, even actual liberals, who continue to be perplexed as to why he won't govern like a liberal.  

Get a clue!  Obama's not a liberal!  You only think he is because everybody says he is!

I'm sick of the whole "not as bad as the Republicans" line of bullshit.  Yeah, it may be true.  But the Republicans take us toward conservative oblivion chaotically and quickly, while the Democrats take us there slowly and methodically.  Either way, the right-wing wasteland - think Mad Max movies - is where we're headed, and neither party has any desire to change direction.

I was, I must admit, happy when Obama won.  But only because the nation dodged a bullet.  Not because liberalism is in any way triumphant.  We continue to be headed in the wrong direction.  Obama is not our savior.  Indeed, no one from the political establishment can possibly be our savior.  They all buy into the "Washington consensus," laissez-faire, low taxes on the rich, deregulation, hostility to organized labor, cutting social services.  That is, they don't believe in the middle class, even though they throw the term around like it was Jesus Himself.

This is something in common I share with people who call themselves "conservative": I think this country is going to hell in a handbasket.

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