A Short Note On The Democratic Party And The Progressive Left....

[The Magistrate]

66. Regarding Your Points, Sir

One of the things that amuses me is the belief among people, mostly below a certain age, that the Democratic Party is, historically, a liberal and left body. Even in the days of the New Deal that was far from the case, and before that is best overlooked in silence. If you were to have told a solid liberal, let alone a left radical, circa 1967, that Mr. Johnson was an icon of liberal progressive-ism, you would have got your ears pinned back, and might have had to duck quick too. The critique of half-measures and sham vitiating any real assistance to the poor in 'The Great Society', the half-hearted enforcement of Voting Rights laws, particularly where it might discomfit his old Senate cronies from the South, the blatant favors and thimble-rigging he performed on behalf of big business, particularly oil and defense industries, would not even have had to proceed to charges of war-mongering and instances of Red-baiting of the most shameful and grotesque character. The view that the Democratic Party is above all an institution dedicated to liberal and progressive causes, hostile to people who do not enthusiastically support same, is relatively recent.

I am not so much concerned with which faction is more numerous in this forum. I have no idea which would prevail were a scientific poll taken. But it is a fact of our political life that left progressive-ism is not a predominant force in our politics, and if one side is to dictate terms from a position of political strength, it would more likely be centerists than otherwise. When people who do oppose from a left position, such as, to take an off-forum example' ms. Benjamin and Code Pink, promote a line like 'Stand with Rand' when one of the worst reactionaries on the scene overlaps a position they press, they can certainly expect chastisement from people who manage to preserve some awareness of who is on what side of the real divides. The line you complain of could just as easily be turned against comments equating President Obama to Bush, and people who support him to ditto-heads.

Invoking the 'sensible woodchuck' does not alter the fact that when setting strategy, one must bear always in mind what can actually be achieved with the means to hand in the theater one operates. I am inclined to the view myself that the strategic calculations of our Party leadership have not always been correct, and tend to over-caution.