- Top Features:
- War Room
- Glenn Greenwald
- Broadsheet
- Joan Walsh
- Camille Paglia
- Since You Asked
- Follow Salon:
Read other letters about this article
As I read McCain's words, I'm forcefully reminded of the Republican convention of 1992. As I watched the two Pats From Hell, Buchanan and Robertson, basically issue a Fatwa against a rather large chunk of America, I was as disheartened as I was dumbfounded. Later, when Clinton's victory was secure, I watched a television interview in LA where two East Coast sounding, clearly well off, older Republican women said, "We watched that convention. There was nothing there for us."
While I share the optimism that the right might face another historic repudiation, all such a thing ever amounts to is a holding pattern, never a decisive move back past the center-right. Clinton's liberalism, such as it was, quickly evaporated into what used to be moderate Republicanism. Gone were the stimulus program, health care reform, gays serving openly in the military, and distinguished liberal appointees, in the blink of an eye. Later welfare reform and DOMA sealed the fate or progressivism against the barely diminished and decidedly unhumbled right-wing assault.
Could it be different this time? Lord, I hope so.
