Stepford Democrats

By Aziz P. -
An intriguing article from ChronWatch.com observes how Dean dominates the debate, and has reversed the pundits:

There is some amusing role reversal going on in the press. ABC.com describes Dean’s recent Meet the Press appearance, ''Besides being evasive, Dean left himself vulnerable from the left, right, or both on the military, gay marriage, Social Security, and more. He looked thin-skinned, unprepared, stuttering.''

More conservative voices, The New York Post’s Deborah Orin for instance, praise him. ''If you think Dean won’t sell down south, he is sort of pro-gun and the NRA likes him. Yet that doesn’t seem to irk his liberal backers. He’s become the Teflon Dean among liberals.''

Look for this to change if Dean gets the Democrat nod. Old-line liberal outfits like ABC, who would like to see a more traditional (John F. Kerry) candidate, will reverse field faster than Roger Staubach. Quirks now observed with amusing contempt will become statesmanlike virtues. Conservatives will find fault with his diversity of viewpoints. This promises a fine donnybrook for political observers.
...
Nothing can be taken away from Howard Dean. Through sheer force of will, he dominates the debate. The others are like puppets. They hop to and fro, puffing out their medals, shaking their wattles at the television cameras. They are his Stepford shadows.

Republicans love anything that moves their opponents left. The premature clinking of champagne glasses could prove distracting. No doubt such premature celebration will vanish if Dean begins to surge. Republicans know how to run scared. They have had a lot of practice.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

A fair solution to Jerusalem

By Aziz P. -
I remember reading one of the books by Tom Clancy in which Jack Ryan was credited with coming up with a solution for Middle East peace which was pointedly never actually detailed in the novel. It was just a way to give his character some foreign policy cred, but ended up like that mysterious suitcase in Pulp Fiction. I couldn't help but be reminded of that, though, when I read former New York mayor Ed Koch's innovative solution to resolving the status of Jerusalem . Instead of putting the hot-button issue of Jerusalem last on the agenda, the issue should be addressed first. If the Jerusalem question is solved, everything else should fall into place more easily. I believe there is a way to keep Jerusalem unified. I am talking not only of the old walled city, which is a very small part of the city of Jerusalem, but the whole city, east, west, north and south. [...] My suggestion is to situate the new Palestinian capital in that part of East Jerusalem that is occupied overwhelming
Read more

Conservatism's shari'a, liberalism's ijtihad

By Aziz P. -
An interesting meta-debate by intellectual conservatives over conservatism's future is playing out. It started with David Frum's Waterloo essay, which led to his political excommunication. Julian Sanchez observed that this represented an epistemic closing of the conservative mind , a thesis that was validated by the retribution visited upon Jim Manzi for daring to suggest that conservatives will achieve more persuasion by using honest, strong arguments instead of weak, emotional ones. All of this has led John Quiggin at Crooked Timber to argue most wisely that as conservatism implodes, liberalism needs to find its own rationale that is more than just "not conservatism". Quiggin has a list of priorities for the liberal movement to address, and closes with the general plea, ...the left has to stand for something more than keeping the existing order afloat with incremental improvements. We need to offer the hope of a better world as an alternative to the angry tribali
Read more