Why Progressives Won’t Save Us
Alternet has an interesting article on Why Hillary Won’t Save Us.
The article begins very well, pointing out the uselessness of Ms. Clinton, and calling back on the courage of Gene McCarthy — basically saying the same things that Libertarians, Greens, and Naderites, all of whom wanted to support a good democrat ticket to oppose Bush, were saying about Kerry 2 years ago.
Unfortunately the author then launches into a tirade of support for universal health care and other socialistic causes. She claims the majority of Americans support these ideas — I’m not certain whether she’s referencing a lie, a damn lie, or a statistic, but I know I’ve never seen majoritarian support for these positions.
My anecdotal experience has matched what Rasmussen found in a year 2000 poll — there is no clear *majority* for any one ideology (the largest group, at 32%, are centrists), but the largest segment with a clear ideology are libertarians (at 16%, verses 13% liberal and 7% conservative). This of course is not to say there is a groundswell of support for the radical positions of the Libertarian Party, but that more people support a basic direction of social liberalism + fiscal conservatism than support either the left or right wings overall. Or to phrase it still more as an anecdote, I think most people are looking for exactly the sort of leadership that Jackson Miller describes.
Which is why it is so heart wrenching to see progressives continually pulling the rug out from under the civil libertarians with these fiscal issues. A democratic party that focused hard on the social side of the platform — antiwar, pro 1st & 4th ammendment, gay rights, etc — while not embracing fiscal conservatism, just moderate, sensible fiscal policy — could gain a lot of traction and maybe reverse some of the Orwellian directions the country has been taking.
Freedom Democrats is one organization hoping to effect this type of shift, and I for one am keeping a hopeful eye on them. Unfortunately I fear too many democrats may be getting horribly inverted advice and the party may just go from bad to worse.
