When I look at Obama, I see a man who is trying very hard to do right by the people

[primavera]

145. "the best the left can get"

Interesting you should reference the last 20-30 years in politics as evidence that Obama is the best we can get. What I see when I look at the last 20-30 years in American politics is a steady slide to the right. During those decades, we've disassociated ourselves from people like Kennedy and Carter, and have instead embraced more centrist, accommodationist leaders like Clinton and now Obama. And where has that gotten us? The Republican field is so far to the right that even their patron saints like Ronnie Raygun would look on them with horror if they could see them today.

I don't know for sure that the left's eagerness to compromise has necessary been the primary causal factor in that nightmare slide to the right, although it makes a certain amount of intuitive sense to me that, if one side lays down their arms, the other side will be only too happy to take advantage of it. But what does seem indisputable is that, whatever it is we're doing, it hasn't prevented the country from drifting farther and farther to the right. Since we've tried the be-reasonable-and-try-to-make-everybody-happy approach for the last 30 years and it hasn't paid off, if anything, it's enabled a terrifying trend in American politics, do you think there's a valid argument to be made that maybe we need to stop trying to be so middle of the road? Maybe if we took more principled positions, we'd be doing better. Observing the demands of today's Teabaggers, it's hard to imagine that we could do any worse.