Monday, August 25, 2008
Bitter Butter Battle
Kevin Drum, in his new digs at Mother Jones, states:
It has been suggested, from time to time, that such agreement is a precursor to intellectual stagnation.
On a more serious note - is this true? We're seeing Obama reel back earlier promises on trade, Iraq and taxes, aren't the positions that he is revising embedded in his base somewhere? I know all the wacked out lefties on a community bulletin board I subscribe to are seething at anticipated treachery from Obama.
Despite all this supposed agreement, animosity and intra-party disagreement continue::
As they say, the smaller the stakes, the nastier the argument.
On trade and economic issues, the left and right of the party have both moved in each other's direction since the early 90s and the remaining disageements are pretty moderate. Nearly everyone is united on some form of liberal internationalism as our favored foreign policy stance, and nearly everyone wants to withdraw from Iraq. Social issues have largely sorted themselves out. There's surprisingly broad agreement about what our energy policy ought to look like. And there's virtual unanimity on the broad contours of how we should tackle healthcare.
It's not all sweetness and light, but aside from optics and personality issues, liberals really are remarkably united this year. It's kinda scary in a way.
It has been suggested, from time to time, that such agreement is a precursor to intellectual stagnation.
On a more serious note - is this true? We're seeing Obama reel back earlier promises on trade, Iraq and taxes, aren't the positions that he is revising embedded in his base somewhere? I know all the wacked out lefties on a community bulletin board I subscribe to are seething at anticipated treachery from Obama.
Despite all this supposed agreement, animosity and intra-party disagreement continue::
Sixty-six percent of Clinton supporters, registered Democrats who want Clinton as the nominee, are now backing Obama. That’s down from 75 percent in the end of June. Twenty-seven percent of them now say they’ll support McCain, up from 16 percent in late June.
“The number of Clinton Democrats who say they would vote for McCain has gone up 11 points since June, enough to account for most although not all of the support McCain has gained in that time,” says Holland.
As they say, the smaller the stakes, the nastier the argument.
1 Comments:
By 
, at
Mon Aug 25, 12:08:00 PM:
I'd would say that some of those generalities are most definently NOT TRUE of Democrats, and that Drum has been co-opted to say they are for the Greater Purpose of Party Unity. Scary? No. Unbelievable? Yes.
Anecdotal example: My brother-in-law is a Democrat that HATES Bush, etc. He also hates Mexicans and thinks the border should be absolutely closed. That's unity for you.
Mother Jones? What a bunch of Trotskyites.
-David
