I published this post at my own blog yesterday, which created quite some debate, so I thought I should publish it here as well.
E.J. Dionne writes:
Why can’t the left get any respect?
Whenever you use the word “left” in American politics, you feel almost compelled to add quotation marks. Today’s left is not talking about nationalizing industry, abolishing capitalism or destroying the rich. What passes for “left” in American politics is quite moderate by historical standards.
Still, cliches die hard, so you hear such 20-year-old questions as: “Are Democrats moving too far to the left?” or “Will Democrats abandon the center?”
This approach is about abstractions, not concrete political problems, and it misses the dynamic in American public life, which is the move away from the right and a discrediting of the conservative era. The political “center” of today is not where the “center” was even five years ago.
That’s why every leading Democratic candidate for president chose to appear at this week’s “Take Back America” conference organized by the Campaign for America’s Future, the leading group on the party’s progressive end. This included Hillary Clinton, whose roots in the centrist politics of the Democratic Leadership Council run deep. Clinton not only knows how much political energy there is on the left; she also knows where public opinion has moved, particularly on the Iraq war.
Conservatism as an ideology has only been discredited in the eyes of those who did not believe in conservative ideology to begin with. I find it hilarious to see progressives declare how conservatism has had its chance but how – sadly – it has proven that it does not work, etc.
Those who actually know something about traditional conservatism, however, know very well that Bush has not governed like a conservative. He has governed like a Big Government (and Big Business) Republican, not as a small government conservative. The mistake American conservatives made – of course – is that they stood by Bush, even when it had become crystal clear that Bush is anything but a conservative.
But – that does not mean that conservatism as an ideology has failed. It has not. It has not had a real chance.
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