Kevin Drum And The “Reality Based” Community
By Justin Gardner | Related entries in General PoliticsAs an addition to my post “A Lament About Centrism“, I noticed Kevin Drum respond to a recent assertion that Democrats are really the party of the middle.
If all these policies are really that popular, it’s hard to believe they could make exactly zero (or negative!) progress over the past 25 years. And it’s not that no one has tried. Clinton made only minimal progress on this stuff. Al Gore ran on a populist platform in 2000 and lost. (I know, I know….) John Edwards ran on a similar message in 2004, and he didn’t even win the nomination.So this all leads back to the place it always leads back to: Democrats just don’t know how to talk about these things. We frame them badly. In 25 years, not one single Democrat has figured out how to effectively sell these policies to the American public.
And I’m not sure which scares me more: the possibility that this is right or the possibility that it’s wrong.
I guess he’s running scared either way. And really, that’s the Dems problem. They try to stand for everything, and so they stand for nothing. I’m sure a leader will emerge from this party eventually, but what about 2008? Is Hillary really the person to redefine these core principles or do the Dems need somebody far more credible and charismatic?
As a side note, I’ve always snickered at the whole “reality-based” community BS that many liberals throw around. Sure, it’s harmless, but recently it’s been sadly ironic. Here’s a political party that says it’s reality based and yet they keep ignoring the reality that they’re losing election after election.
Anyway, just thinking out loud.
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October 11th, 2005 at 9:44 am
the “reality-based” thing really horks me off: in reality, the majority of Americans do not agree with either party’s most expansive claims.
As an example:
most Americans do not want all abortions outlawed.
most Americans do not mind some limits on abortion access (like parental notification, etc).
most Americans are against discrimination against homosexuals (in employment, housing, certainly in terms of being against gay-bashing)
most Americans are not in favor of extending the concept of marriage to cover two people of the same sex.
The trouble is that neither party is actually representing more than their dedicated 30% or so which DOES agree with their most expansive claims, and anyone who behaves as a moderate is treated as a stalking-horse by both parties. We need a new party which is actually based in reality…
October 11th, 2005 at 1:14 pm
This would certainly be welcome.