Yes, E.J. is in fact a Genius!
A response to an earlier post...
His book Why Americans Hate Politics became the playbook for the Clinton campaign in 1992.
It is unfortunate that Kerry did not follow suite and read Stand Up, Fight Back (then again if the Democrats read that book Kerry would never have been close to being our nominee, but I digress).
E.J. (we are on an initial basis, he calls me Big D) is not only brilliant, but he has demonstrated that it is possible to be progressive and be a centrist at the same time.
I do disagree with you slightly however. I started leaning too left during the Iraq war and was frustrated with the way this administration squandered the good will and hope that poured in from around the world after 9/11.
I wished the liberals and Democrats would have all been stronger and taken it to the administration then...but they didn't.
They couldn't. As our fellow classmate and blogger brooks has noted...it is too late...the conservatives have won the battle of semantics...they own the language.
It took them 40 years to do it, but they have it now and we as centrists, or even liberals, cannot and should not expect to be able to retake it overnight.
This is not to say it is hopeless, or that we have lost to the extreme right or anything...it only means that they have control over the language...
...meaning, Freedom and Patriotism = Conservative
obstructionism and cynicism = Liberal
They have redefined the terms and the more liberals clamor "am not am not" the easier it is for the conservatives to simply point and say, "see, there they go being all whinny and cynical again."
The second Kerry made his entire campaign about the War it was over.
He tried to reverse the course of 40 years of history that the conservatives have built to change the language, and he tried to do it in one moment.
So how do you do change these terms?
It starts by playing by their rules, then you beat them at their own game and then you have the power to change the rules again.
It cannot be done over night. This is where the ideals and philosophy of the center comes into play a huge role because as E.J. shows, it is possible to be a progressive centrist and I am beginning to believe that this is in fact the only way to redefine not only the language, but the nature of political discourse in this country.
His book Why Americans Hate Politics became the playbook for the Clinton campaign in 1992.
It is unfortunate that Kerry did not follow suite and read Stand Up, Fight Back (then again if the Democrats read that book Kerry would never have been close to being our nominee, but I digress).
E.J. (we are on an initial basis, he calls me Big D) is not only brilliant, but he has demonstrated that it is possible to be progressive and be a centrist at the same time.
I do disagree with you slightly however. I started leaning too left during the Iraq war and was frustrated with the way this administration squandered the good will and hope that poured in from around the world after 9/11.
I wished the liberals and Democrats would have all been stronger and taken it to the administration then...but they didn't.
They couldn't. As our fellow classmate and blogger brooks has noted...it is too late...the conservatives have won the battle of semantics...they own the language.
It took them 40 years to do it, but they have it now and we as centrists, or even liberals, cannot and should not expect to be able to retake it overnight.
This is not to say it is hopeless, or that we have lost to the extreme right or anything...it only means that they have control over the language...
...meaning, Freedom and Patriotism = Conservative
obstructionism and cynicism = Liberal
They have redefined the terms and the more liberals clamor "am not am not" the easier it is for the conservatives to simply point and say, "see, there they go being all whinny and cynical again."
The second Kerry made his entire campaign about the War it was over.
He tried to reverse the course of 40 years of history that the conservatives have built to change the language, and he tried to do it in one moment.
So how do you do change these terms?
It starts by playing by their rules, then you beat them at their own game and then you have the power to change the rules again.
It cannot be done over night. This is where the ideals and philosophy of the center comes into play a huge role because as E.J. shows, it is possible to be a progressive centrist and I am beginning to believe that this is in fact the only way to redefine not only the language, but the nature of political discourse in this country.
1 Comments:
I have a lot of trouble with the term 'progressive'--it seems to shift from use to use. Honestly, I still can't name what it is to be progressive. It sure does sound good though. It starts with being right, why else would we bother?
So, Furious D, my confusion is your statement about "leaning too left...." Authenticity is important, don't you think?
Oh, and why should the liberals and Democrats have been stronger? Centrists can't do the dirty work themselves?
By brooks, at 11:19 PM
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