REAL ART COUNTERPOINT
Yes, Miles, The Democrats Are Dead

Well, dead for liberals, anyway.

Part of what is appealing about having my former student Miles as a guest blogger is that, ideally, it gives me a night off from time to time. Of course, that's impossible when Miles makes a post that simply demands a response from me. So no free day today for me.

In order to follow the debate, make sure that you've read my post "WHY THE DEMOCRATS SUCK" from a couple of days ago, and then read Miles' response to it immediately below this post. Then scroll back here and continue reading:

For starters, Miles, I was actually talking about a buddy of mine from high school, Kevin, but you've expressed similar sentiments, and you are, indeed, intelligent and liberal, so I could see how you would think I was talking about you. But that's okay. I'll argue with you instead.

You say that the Democrats have no place to go but the center, but you forget what's been happening for the last couple of decades: the Democrats have already moved toward the center, and beyond, on more than one occasion, and it has gained them very little. You also forget that "the center" ain't at all what it used to be. Today's "liberals" are yesterday's moderates; today's "conservatives" are yesterday's right-wing extremists. The Conservative Movement has done a very good job of legitimizing political points of view that were almost unthinkable a very short time ago. In doing this, and in gaining political success, the right wing has handily dragged the entire political spectrum towards itself, and Democratic power brokers have been more than happy to help. Call it what you want, "the center" is quite conservative these days.

I just don't follow the logic that says that in order to beat the conservatives, we must support conservatism--I mean, if we support conservatism, then we've already lost.

Look, I'll grant you that Clinton was somewhat successful as a conservative Democrat. Michael Moore called him the best Republican President we've ever had. But I think he was only able to pull it off because he's probably the most gifted American politician of the last fifty years. Guys like him don't come along too often. But Clinton's success is also problematic. Under his and the conservative Democratic Leadership Council's leadership, both houses of Congress were lost to the Republicans, and the twenty year long process of dismantling New Deal reforms picked up speed. It's also arguable that Clinton actually aided the advance of the conservative cause by championing watered-down versions of right-wing policy initiatives. Indeed, further Democratic center-shifts (that is, conservative-shifts) will do nothing but aid the Republicans by adding to the overall air of rightist rhetoric in which we are currently drowning, which also serves to stifle and crowd out liberal voices. The bottom line is that eight years of Clinton set the stage for eight years of Bush. That's what previous Democrat attempts to play to the center have brought us: a simian president.

Ultimately, no one is capable of beating the Republicans on their own turf. It's their ideology, after all. Republican Lite is a losing strategy in both the short term and the long run.

You said, "The key now is just to regain control. Things can move farther to the left from there." That didn't happen under Clinton, and it won't happen in the future, even assuming that they ever do regain control--such a strategy would be considered to be successful by the robots who run the party, and, like lemmings running over the cliff, they would do everything they could to continue it. Really, Miles, what makes you think that conservative Democrats would ever shift to the left once they gained power? Hell, Clinton even moved to the right once he was in office! Things just don't work that way.

The Republicans got where they are because conservatives made a long term commitment back in 1964 (after Barry Goldwater lost to LBJ) to aggressively push a strong, right-wing ideology--believe it or not, there actually used to be some liberal Republicans back in the day; they're all in gulags now. This ideological propagandizing eventually allowed conservatives to overtake the GOP during the Reagan era. From there, they seemed unbeatable. This ground-up approach created a cultural context in which the "Republican Revolution" was inevitable, because there was nothing like it on the liberal side. By the time Newt Gingrich took power in the House, the Democrats felt blindsided, and, indeed, they were. And still are. The Democrats have been floundering ever since. They're pathetic wafflers, standing for only that which they believe will get them votes, perceived as losers by the public, actual losers at the polls.

Turning toward "the center" is simply collaboration with the enemy. What we have now are Vichy Democrats, and the only way that they'll ever have my support again is if they can show that progressive ideals are welcome. Until then, I'm an outsider. And I'm not holding my breath.

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