"Oligarchy's lies never die, while political truth is strangled every day"

[phantom power]

One of Charlie Pierce's great additions to the blogosphere, besides his sublime writing, is his historical memory. In this post, he takes on La Noonan and her gauzy view of the old TipnRonnie trope and then lays some knowledge on all of us...

...

Of course, Reagan and O'Neill got along. Reagan was sharp enough to know that O'Neill was willing to sell out enough of the traditional Democratic party to give Reagan most of what he wanted. The reason Bill Clinton got the awful welfare "reform" deal together with Newt Gingrich and his group of Republicans was because the Republicans got a lot of what they wanted. However, at this current moment in history, the Republicans repeatedly vote against what previously were their own ideas — on health-care, on education, on immigration — simply because this particular president has proposed them.

There were people, you see, even at the time, who saw the Democrats for what they were becoming and "centrism" for the servant of power if really was. The reason this is important is that for some reason, liberals have to "discover" these things over and over again and then in the throes of "new" knowledge, spend vast amounts energy and time educating their own allies about stuff they should already know. This endless reinventing of the hamster wheel gives the conservatives a big advantage --- unlike liberals who are stuck going around the same track, the other side is constantly evolving. And liberals are always caught by surprise by what they've become.

I don't know the answer to this problem. But reading Charlie Pierce is a good start.

http://digbysblog.blogspot.com/2013/05/oligarchys-lies-never-die-while.html

[tblue]

1. I'm not stuck on that wheel,

probably neither are you. But there are plenty who will never figure it out. Charlie P. makes such a good point--the GOP runs circles around us and gets to the finish line before we even know what direction it's in. Certainly it's true of Dem politicians, but also many Dem voters. Sad sad sad.

[cprise]

2. I *was* stuck on that wheel

...having grown up in an environment where baby boomers were stampeding toward irrational world views (or bouncing between them) ranging from flower child to evangelical. There was little room for transmitting decent political and economic values to the next generation.

For a time, liberals prided themselves on their "subversive" messages in the media. Looking back it seems like the cowardly use of ambiguity to me; That late-20th century effect--where people saw completely different messages in the same movies depending on the viewers' disposition--is a well established example.

They copped-out of their social responsibility while telling themselves that inculcating the consumerist values based on gratification would bring happiness to society. A particular spin of postmodern thought came into vogue in service to that Left slide toward consumer nihilism: One could always stop an argument in its tracks by turning it around and throwing the opposite back in their face claiming they are really just self-interested and imposing their personal desires on everyone else (probably the largest and most effective use of projection in history, IMHO).

For gen-Xers and millenials both, the result was an intellectual and moral desert, especially for those of us who grew up in conservative families: The rare encounter with Progressive 'egghead' views which almost never seemed to make sense because they represented advanced collegiate-level works that --- quite frankly--- did not seem for an instant to give a damn whether the value and experience embodied therein could be made accessible to successive generations. There was no bridge whatsoever.

I got off the wheel sooner than most, starting in the late 90s. When I joined DU I realized the Democratic base was already very far gone, and a founder of the DLC -- Al Gore -- was its hero.


So Here We Are.


The criticisms from 1960s radicals against the "Liberal establishment" which seemed opaque and incomprehensible to someone coming of age in the 1980s now seem crystal clear, almost prescient and even when not right still understandable in its context. It has taken an extra generation for people like myself to come to such understanding because that Liberal establishment aided and abetted the coverup of our economic history.

Whenever I hear that Liberal refrain The Truth Will Always Win, I think of someone who is preparing their conscience to sweep something nasty under the rug. That something nasty will indeed find a way... of creeping back up from behind and attacking those who are least able to fight back (which incidentally sounds like a description of our current criminal justice system).

[Laelth]

3. Brilliant. k&r for exposure. n/t

-Laelth