Our Big Tent: Partisanship and Governance
My good friend Ed Kilgore of the DLC is a terrific writer, a good Democrat and a smart and reasonable man. But I have always felt frustrated with his refusal or inability to distinguish between partisan politicking and pragmatic governance. He writes:
E.J. Dionne, explains the larger meaning of this collapse of GOP support among independents:President Bush's six-year effort to create an enduring Republican majority based on a right-leaning coalition is on the verge of collapse. The way he tried to create it could have the unintended consequence of opening the way for an alternative majority. . . . The strategy pursued by Bush and Karl Rove has frightened most of the political center into the arms of Democrats. . . [T]his approach created what may prove to be a fatal political disconnect: Adventurous policies designed to create enthusiasm on the right turned off a large number of less ideological voters.In other words, the Rovian politics of polarization, along with the failed policies it produced, are in ruins. And the long-term choice facing Democrats after this and (if we win) the next election is whether we pivot to a governing agenda that restores the confidence in progressive government that was becoming evident during the Clinton years, or go down the same road to perdition the GOP has followed, with disastrous results for their party and the country.
Why does Ed equate partisan politicking with ideological governance? It is the basic mistake of the DLC and many other Centrists and it tears at the fabric of our Big Tent for no good reason. I'll explain again on the flip.
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