Letters to the Editor
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"Appear"
Mr. Lind makes a point early on in his article about Candidate McCain appearing more like an Eisenhauer Republican than a Reagan one.
The key word is "appears". What makes Mr. Lind believe that President McCain will not actually govern any differently that Senator McCain actually voted, 90% of the time? It is the self delusions on the part of pundits and constant Free passes that they give to John McCain that enable him to portray himself as a "Maverick", "Free from Lobbyist influence" and a "Moderate", when all three are blatantly false.
President Bush managed, through "clearing brush" and "being the guy everyone wants to have a beer with" to parlay into almost seven years of non-scrutiny. How many years will John McCain get? Since he has managed to skate through the past few decades essentially unexamined, likely at least six or seven more (enough for two terms in office anyway).
No wonder Candidate McCain refers to the Media Reporters as "His Base".
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SCOTUS allergens, et al
But the Supreme Court has not repealed Roe v. Wade and, because of its allergy to repudiating precedent, is not likely to do so.
It sounds you didn't catch much footage of Scalia during his book tour. He has his arguments for overturning precedent, and he's not afraid to use them. You'll pry them from his cold, dead hands.
And perhaps it is me, but this piece was too evocative of resting on our laurels, of our success at fighting the last war. In the interest of brevity, I'll make the bold claim that the economic underpinings of the 'modern liberal welfare state' were due to the United States getting passed the global economic torch from Britian post WWI, then our economic hegemony post WWII, and that for a variety of reasons, including massive currency inflation, costly wars, and globalization, that period is coming to a close. We also have a quasi forever war on 'terrorism' undermining the checks and balances of government, empowering a shadow force unaccountable to the public and erroding our fundamental freedoms. So bully for liberalism. But we have a lot of fish to fry, and big waves to surf (to put those metaphors into the cusinart). I don't think it's time to be complacent.
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Mr. Lind makes good points
But perhaps underestimates the power of personal, slash and burn politics, as well as the lie of McCain the moderate.
And if, "winning," is inheriting the gawdawful mess created by the Bush administration, we might be better off losing. Bush has managed to keep things just barely okay enough so that he won't get the blame for the shit that is headed towards the proverbial fan (other than Iraq and New Orleans). The next president will likely be a one-termer. If history proves accurate, Obama will be the new Carter.
Carter was one of the greatest presidents of the 20th century, but he certainly lacked a good P.R. department. He had to step on the economy to curb the rampant, runaway inflation foisted on us by King Richard the First's runaway deficit spending. He curbed spending, and raised interest rates through the roof, sending us into recession. If he had not done so, we would currently be trying to cross the border into Mexico, rather than the other way around. He took over where FDR left off, and established about a million social programs designed to get people back on their feet, which were, for the most part, promptly squashed by Reagan as soon as he took office.
I don't envy President Obama. He has a very tough road to hoe.
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Uh oh
Anytime someone puffs up and deems one side or the other dead, the rumor is invariably greatly exaggerated.
See, Rove's Permanent Republican Majority.
The conservatives are in disarray but the base has not eroded significantly and there is a new generation already rising to wage the cultural war.
So don't get smug and don't get complacent and most of all, DO NOT RELAX.
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Spoken like a man
It may be really easy to be complacent about reproductive rights when you don't have a uterus, but nonetheless I expect better from salon.
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One has to ask what does liberal mean.
I hate to rain on the parade, but when Salon or any other media outlet claims to be cutting edge, the issue of class has to be addressed. I am not sure what revolution you are talking about. Salon has continually shown a willing disregard for the question of class. When Hilary or any other politician claims that 96K or 125K is middle class they need to be called out. Alas, not on Salon. Salon is a site that is feel good cultural punditry.
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sigmund5
She said 'up to $200,000 is middle income' for the record.
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Bravo
Way to pat yourself and your ilk on the back, Michael. Now let's see if the Democrats can pull out the Presidency in this election. If so, your arguments may have some validity (although I'd argue that they reflect the absolute incompetence and intolerance - not the true conservatism - of the current administration.) If not, as I told my Democratic wife at the start of this election cycle, your party is the most incompentent political party in history. I had a similar response to your screed as I did to the recent article about the "death of conservatism" in the New Yorker - in both cases, the author underestimates the ability of the Democratic party to self-destruct. Just look at the Pelosi Congress. Cheers!
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@ iconoclast
Carter was one of the greatest presidents of the twentieth century? How do you figure?
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If this is winning. . .
If a 10 TRILLION dollar nation debt, being trapped in a quagmire in Iraq and Afghanistan for the next 10 years or more, $130+/barrel of oil, global warming with its melting ice caps and rising oceans, the bankrupt social security trust fund, skyrocketing health care, home heating and food prices, interstate bridges falling down, flat wages and disappearing middle class and the bill of rights and constitution having the equivalent value of used toilet paper are what winning is like, I would have preferred to have lost.
Seems to me people have barely awoken to the reality of this nightmare--and here is Lind announcing 'game over-we won'?!?
Maybe I need to start smoking what Lind has--then I can see things with rose colored glasses too.