« Like Rick, I was misinformed | hoonoo's Blog | Still think liberalism is politically viable in the USA in 2008? »

Still think liberalism is viable political philosophy in the USA in 2008?


Reconsider.

Point: The Democratic candidate for president has voted to legitimize warrantless phone taps on Americans against whom there is no evidence of wrongdoing.

Point: Said presidential candidate's most formidable rival sponsored a bill in such clear violation of free political speech that it engendered agreement between the ACLU and Antonin Scalia.

Point: If said presidential candidate loses the election, it is likely to be at least somewhat the result of the color of skin.

Point: The Republican candidate for president revitalized his campaign by selecting a corrupt, totally unqualified running mate whose qualifications seem to  member of an ultra-right Christian cult.

Point: Said vice-presidential candidate is picking up votes from women who formerly supported the Democratic runner-up for the presidential nomination.

Point: In any country where liberalism were viable, this election would have already been a clear runaway in every demographic in every state. It would would make the 1972 and 1988 elections look like photo finishes, but with the other horse in the lead.

Point: The Republican Party is still advancing its causes and candidates by misleading the electorate about Democrats' intentions to raise taxes on the middle class even as the middle class shrinks, wages drop, and services disappear.

Point: The Republican Party is still advancing its causes and candidates by stressing right-wing "values," even when their candidates repeatedly and obviously demonstrate that they hold such values in contempt in their private lives.

Point: If the Republican Party loses the election in 2008, it may very well be because a significant block of its voters defected to an even more radically conservative candidate.

Point: The Democrats managed a take-over of both houses of congress in 2006 mostly by nominating young conservatives to face unpopular Republicans. One of the Senators the Democrats installed in 2006 was actually a member of the administration of Ronald Reagan.

Point: On this supposedly liberal blog, a number of the more prolific reader/bloggers habitually rail against liberals. One blog recently referred to the "liberal media" twice, the "liberal press" twice, and generic liberals twice. These references were not challenged. A very prolific commenter referred to Washington, DC as "yidland" in a thread authored by TPM Cafe's most iconic Jewish blogger. That commenter's reference, as of this writing, also went unchallenged.

Point: The second-most disastrous president in American history, the conservative Ronald Reagan, is still referred to in hallowed terms by Republicans, Democrats and independents.

Point: The most disastrous president in American history keeps his Democratic congressional opposition cowed and keeps them busy financing his imperial and authoritarian wet dreams by allowing them to believe they are pandering to the electorate even when surveys show the public supports the Democrats. Even, in fact, when it is clear the opposition congresspersons were sent to Washington specificly to thwart said imperial and authoritarian wet dreams.

Some think the pendulum is swinging back toward the liberal side of the political trajectory, but the evidence would seem to indicate that the pendulum has fallen from its pivot and is permanently stuck in the ground far to the right of its inflection point.

 


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hoonoo

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