The Purple Party
By Justin Gardner | Related entries in General PoliticsA great new article in New York magazine shouts from the rooftops what we’ve been talking about for nearly a year now.
“We’re moderate as hell, and we’re not gonna be silent anymore!”
Republicans used to brag that theirs was the party of fresh thinking, but who’s brain-dead now? All the big new ideas they have trotted out lately�privatizing Social Security, occupying a big country with only 160,000 troops, Middle Eastern democracy as a force-fed contagion�have given a bad name to new paradigms.As for the Democrats, the Republicans still have a point: Where are the brave, fresh, clear approaches passionately and convincingly laid out? When it comes to reforming entitlements, the Democrats have absolutely refused to step up. Because the teachers unions and their 4 million members are the most important organized faction of its political base, the party is wired to oppose any meaningful experimentation with charter schools or other new modes. Similarly, after beginning to embrace the inevitability of economic globalization in the nineties, and devising ways to minimize our local American pain, the Democrats’ scaredy-cat protectionist instincts seem to be returning with a vengeance. On so many issues, the ostensibly “progressive� party’s habits of mind seem anything but.
Seriously, read the whole thing.
This entry was posted on Thursday, April 20th, 2006 and is filed under General Politics. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
April 20th, 2006 at 9:40 pm
Great article!
April 21st, 2006 at 9:10 am
[...] (Via several sources, including Donklephant) New York Magazine is running a set of articles advocating the creation of “The Purple Party” — essentially the middle/centrist party I’ve wished for in this blog previously. [...]
April 21st, 2006 at 9:28 am
The Open Party wouldn’t be a bad name (thinking of the MN Independence Party’s ad campaign).
April 21st, 2006 at 11:32 am
Well, I’d sign on, but as it turns out, I’m too much of a lefty.
Seriously, thanks for pointing out this article. I’d really like to see something like this come to pass, and I really would sign on.
April 21st, 2006 at 12:34 pm
It’s My Party And I’ll . . .
I’m getting that “I told you so” frisson that Michael at Mighty Middle always gets when someone at the MSM tags the Bush admin with “incompetence” . . . that feeling of “Hey, THEY are finally catching up with ME!”
April 23rd, 2006 at 11:38 pm
Moderate? Does that mean feeling “Sorry” for the relatives of the 34,500+ civilians killed as a result of the “military intervention” in Iraq? But supporting the war anyway? What’s so funny about peace, love and understanding?
The Purple Party awaits post-military minds and hearts at http://www.purpleparty.com
Love
the Purple Party