SIGforum.com    Main Page  Hop To Forum Categories  The Lounge    The Democrats Gave In to Radicals and Gave Up on Common Sense (opinion by WSJ)
Go
New
Find
Notify
Tools
Reply
  
The Democrats Gave In to Radicals and Gave Up on Common Sense (opinion by WSJ) Login/Join 
Freethinker
Picture of sigfreund
posted
An opinion piece from The Wall Street Journal. It’s mostly preaching to the converted here, but it’s nevertheless encouraging to see an effort to speak the truth about issues that have been festering for decades.

-----------------------------------------------

The Democrats Gave In to Radicals and Gave Up on Common Sense


By Joseph Epstein

George Orwell noted the nervousness of people on the left when confronted by those even further to the left. This nervousness stems from leftists’ fear that they will be taken for impure in their own leftism, that their thought and actions don’t go far enough, that they are, finally, not really on the bus. In America during the 1930s, Communists mocked liberals for their weakness, and liberals worried about not measuring up. Hence the phenomenon of the “fellow traveler,” someone who sympathized with the Communist Party but couldn’t bring himself to join it.

Orwell’s observation remains in play. In the mid-1960s, Stokely Carmichael and other young black militants pushed the American civil-rights movement leftward, and away from its goal of integration. Liberals, unable to face down this left-wing pull toward Black Power, knuckled under. A gloriously successful campaign for equal rights based on conscience and dignity devolved into an angry, incoherent movement based on guilt and victimhood. The last thing allowed was the concession of progress of any sort in racial matters. Impressive civil-rights leaders such as Martin Luther King Jr., Whitney Young, Roy Wilkins, and A. Philip Randolph were replaced by such dubious figures as Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton. The movement never recovered.

The same phenomenon appeared in American universities. In faculty meetings everywhere, small groups of the most radical professors were able to get their way through political pressure.

Liberals, generally in the majority, were worried (if not terrified) of seeming to be on the wrong side. When they didn’t give in completely, they sought compromises that invariably favored the radicals. Standards and intellectual authority in universities have given way to political correctness and identity politics.

The same scenario is playing out in the Democratic Party. Since nominating George McGovern in 1972, the party has moved progressively leftward. If the Democrats may by now be said to have a center, it cannot hold, as William Butler Yeats has it in his poem “The Second Coming.” Among today’s Democrats, “The best lack all conviction, while the worst / Are full of passionate intensity.”

By ceding moral authority to the far left, the Democrats have lost the power to counter bizarre proposals with simple common sense. When a freshman congresswoman proposes a wildly improbable Green New Deal, instead of responding as Democrats of an earlier day would have—“Whaddya, kiddin’ me?”— they now take it seriously and several adopt it. When two other freshman Democrats make anti-Semitic pronouncements, no one in a party overwhelmingly the choice of Jewish voters has the authority to tell them to knock it off. When Democratic presidential candidates propose to provide free health care for all, or eliminate college tuition and college debt, or enlarge and pack the Supreme Court, or eliminate the Electoral College, all this is taken in earnest. And the Democratic Party is being held hostage to identity politics, so that no national ticket can ever again be without a black or female candidate.


Donald Trump’s aggressive personality has hastened the Democrats’ radicalization. Party members measure the intensity of their idealism by their hatred of Mr. Trump. The tone and temper of the contemporary Democratic Party encourages— indeed fully supports—this sad condition.

Consider Speaker Nancy Pelosi. A serious and skillful politician, she was finally pushed by her party’s left wing into permitting a hopeless impeachment proceeding that violated her own sensible criteria: that the reasons for impeachment be compelling, the evidence for it overwhelming, and the support for it bipartisan. When the impeachment failed in the Senate, as she had predicted it would, it drove her to the distinctly un-Pelosian act of tearing up her copy of the State of the Union address on national television.

What is to be done? No one has a good answer. Perhaps the only hope is that the Democrats put together a nightmare ticket—Elizabeth Warren and Cory Booker, say, or Bernie Sanders and Kamala Harris—and the party is so crushingly defeated in November that it returns to its long-lost political seriousness.

Mr. Epstein is the author, most recently, of “Charm: The Elusive Enchantment.”

LINK




6.4/93.6

“Most men … can seldom accept the simplest and most obvious truth if it … would oblige them to admit the falsity of conclusions … which they have woven, thread by thread, into the fabrics of their lives.”
— Leo Tolstoy
 
Posts: 47343 | Location: 10,150 Feet Above Sea Level in Colorado | Registered: April 04, 2002Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Fighting the good fight
Picture of RogueJSK
posted Hide Post
quote:
Originally posted by sigfreund:
Perhaps the only hope is that the Democrats put together a nightmare ticket—Elizabeth Warren and Cory Booker, say, or Bernie Sanders and Kamala Harris...


Entirely likely.

quote:
...and the party is so crushingly defeated in November...


Also entirely likely.

quote:
...that it returns to its long-lost political seriousness.


Entirely unlikely. Rather, based on their recent history, the post-defeat analysis will again be "Apparently we didn't go far enough left!"

They've effectively ceded all control of their helm to the vocal, radical minority, and any "moderates"/"centrists" are now just along for the ride. The inmates are truly running the Democratic Party asylum.
 
Posts: 32380 | Location: Northwest Arkansas | Registered: January 06, 2008Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Freethinker
Picture of sigfreund
posted Hide Post
quote:
Originally posted by RogueJSK:
Entirely unlikely. Rather, based on their recent history, the post-defeat analysis will again be "Apparently we didn't go far enough left!"


And not just recently.

I’m reminded of the 1972 campaign when the Democrats nominated even further left George McGovern to run against Richard Nixon after Nixon had defeated leftist Hubert Humphrey in 1968. I believe it was National Lampoon in which I saw a picture of Nixon and his staff all laughing uproariously and the caption was, “They nominated who?




6.4/93.6

“Most men … can seldom accept the simplest and most obvious truth if it … would oblige them to admit the falsity of conclusions … which they have woven, thread by thread, into the fabrics of their lives.”
— Leo Tolstoy
 
Posts: 47343 | Location: 10,150 Feet Above Sea Level in Colorado | Registered: April 04, 2002Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Fighting the good fight
Picture of RogueJSK
posted Hide Post
Okay, comparatively recent history. 50 years is still comparatively recent history for a party that's been around for 200. Wink
 
Posts: 32380 | Location: Northwest Arkansas | Registered: January 06, 2008Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Freethinker
Picture of sigfreund
posted Hide Post
quote:
Originally posted by RogueJSK:
50 years is still comparatively recent history for a party that's been around for 200. Wink


True. Smile
But probably not recently enough for anyone there to remember the lesson. I sometimes actually wonder if they’re being done a favor by having things like this pointed out, but after it’s been published in a national newspaper I figure it’s not likely any of the Democrat leadership will be looking to this forum for political advice.




6.4/93.6

“Most men … can seldom accept the simplest and most obvious truth if it … would oblige them to admit the falsity of conclusions … which they have woven, thread by thread, into the fabrics of their lives.”
— Leo Tolstoy
 
Posts: 47343 | Location: 10,150 Feet Above Sea Level in Colorado | Registered: April 04, 2002Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Back, and
to the left
Picture of 83v45magna
posted Hide Post
When truths (even the evident ones) are spoken, it is refreshing to my soul. Every time. Such a condition can only exist after so much parsing of total sheep dip that one forgets it is possible to hear it from the so called main stream. Unfortunately, very few on the left still have an open mind to it, or anything else.


I am legitimately shocked it was allowed to be published.



I returned, and saw under the sun, that the race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, neither yet bread to the wise, nor yet riches to men of understanding, nor yet favour to men of skill; but time and chance happeneth to them all. -Ecclesiastes 9:11
 
Posts: 7223 | Location: Dallas | Registered: August 04, 2011Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Lawyers, Guns
and Money
Picture of chellim1
posted Hide Post
Good article.



"Some things are apparent. Where government moves in, community retreats, civil society disintegrates and our ability to control our own destiny atrophies. The result is: families under siege; war in the streets; unapologetic expropriation of property; the precipitous decline of the rule of law; the rapid rise of corruption; the loss of civility and the triumph of deceit. The result is a debased, debauched culture which finds moral depravity entertaining and virtue contemptible."
-- Justice Janice Rogers Brown

"The United States government is the largest criminal enterprise on earth."
-rduckwor
 
Posts: 23896 | Location: St. Louis, MO | Registered: April 03, 2009Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Member
Picture of fpuhan
posted Hide Post
quote:
Originally posted by RogueJSK:
quote:
Originally posted by sigfreund:
Perhaps the only hope is that the Democrats put together a nightmare ticket—Elizabeth Warren and Cory Booker, say, or Bernie Sanders and Kamala Harris...


Entirely likely.

quote:
...and the party is so crushingly defeated in November...


Also entirely likely.

quote:
...that it returns to its long-lost political seriousness.


Entirely unlikely. Rather, based on their recent history, the post-defeat analysis will again be "Apparently we didn't go far enough left!"

They've effectively ceded all control of their helm to the vocal, radical minority, and any "moderates"/"centrists" are now just along for the ride. The inmates are truly running the Democratic Party asylum.


I've been detecting a shift in the pendulum's swing for a while, now. I hope the Dems keep pushing it harder.




You can't truly call yourself "peaceful" unless you are capable of great violence. If you're not capable of great violence, you're not peaceful, you're harmless.

NRA Benefactor/Patriot Member
 
Posts: 2857 | Location: Peoples Republic of North Virginia | Registered: December 04, 2015Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Coin Sniper
Picture of Rightwire
posted Hide Post
One thing I've noticed in the last 5+ years is that whatever the DNC accuses the GOP of, they are likely doing themselves to a higher degree.

Along the same lines they tout "commons sense" this and that, but have clearly abandoned baseline common sense for radical ideology.

Smoke and mirrors to a level never before seen in recent history in the USA.




Pronoun: His Royal Highness and benevolent Majesty of all he surveys

343 - Never Forget

Its better to be Pavlov's dog than Schrodinger's cat

There are three types of mistakes; Those you learn from, those you suffer from, and those you don't survive.
 
Posts: 37895 | Location: Above the snow line in Michigan | Registered: May 21, 2004Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Freethinker
Picture of sigfreund
posted Hide Post
Writers for The Wall Street Journal aren’t hesitant about pointing out what they consider to be Trump’s foibles, but they are far more even-handed in their discussions about politics and the state of the nation in general than the rest of the BS news media businesses. The above piece isn’t an unusual one-off by a token conservative, and I’m not the least surprised that it was published in the paper.

I have subscribed to the WSJ for years and that’s because they cater to my biases, … err, report the facts better than any other major news source I’m familiar with.




6.4/93.6

“Most men … can seldom accept the simplest and most obvious truth if it … would oblige them to admit the falsity of conclusions … which they have woven, thread by thread, into the fabrics of their lives.”
— Leo Tolstoy
 
Posts: 47343 | Location: 10,150 Feet Above Sea Level in Colorado | Registered: April 04, 2002Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Just because you can,
doesn't mean you should
posted Hide Post
The whole Nixon/McGovern aftereffect lessons are distorted by Watergate and the years of Church hearings, a poor economy and the end of the Vietnam conflict (at least our participation there).
After that, the country was so tired of the scandals and mostly blamed the Republicans, any Republican. Jimmy Carter wouldn't have been elected in more normal times and was tossed out the next election cycle when the country had started to come back to their senses. He was much more of a moderate than any of the likely Democratic contenders.
The other big question that seems mostly under the radar now is, how will all this influence the Congressional and Senate races?


___________________________
Avoid buying ChiCom/CCP products whenever possible.
 
Posts: 9434 | Location: NE GA | Registered: August 22, 2002Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Member
posted Hide Post
quote:
Originally posted by sigfreund:
Writers for The Wall Street Journal aren’t hesitant about pointing out what they consider to be Trump’s foibles, but they are far more even-handed in their discussions about politics and the state of the nation in general than the rest of the BS news media businesses. The above piece isn’t an unusual one-off by a token conservative, and I’m not the least surprised that it was published in the paper.

I have subscribed to the WSJ for years and that’s because they cater to my biases, … err, report the facts better than any other major news source I’m familiar with.

Word.

Trump has plenty of shortcomings, however the WSJ is not fixated on them unlike the NYT and WP (the other two national news rags), it doesn't drive their positions or serve as the pivot point in their criticism. They actually report...the news or, as objectively as one can in this environment of commercial journalism and click-bait attraction.
 
Posts: 14537 | Location: Wine Country | Registered: September 20, 2000Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Freethinker
Picture of sigfreund
posted Hide Post
quote:
Originally posted by 220-9er:
The whole Nixon/McGovern aftereffect lessons are distorted by Watergate and the years of Church hearings, a poor economy and the end of the Vietnam conflict (at least our participation there).


In the long run, that’s true, but my point was that after Humphrey was defeated in 1968, the Democrats doubled down on so-called “liberalism” by nominating McGovern who then suffered one of the worst electoral defeats in our history. And why did they think McGovern would win? I believe it was probably because they thought that after three plus years of Nixon the electorate would realize what a bad President he had been and would be willing to accept a major change of direction. In fact, of course, that was absolutely untrue. Watergate, the pardon, and other factors kept Ford from being reelected, but that was well after McGovern.

I suspect that whatever thinking Democrats are putting to the question of whom to nominate now, it’s along the same lines: “Trump is such an obviously horrible person and President that we can nominate anyone, no matter how radical, and get him/her elected.” I believe (and hope), but not blindly, they will be in for a McGovern-type letdown, and I’m hardly alone, even among Democrats. At this point I’m seeing a lot of similarities first to 1968 and then 1972.




6.4/93.6

“Most men … can seldom accept the simplest and most obvious truth if it … would oblige them to admit the falsity of conclusions … which they have woven, thread by thread, into the fabrics of their lives.”
— Leo Tolstoy
 
Posts: 47343 | Location: 10,150 Feet Above Sea Level in Colorado | Registered: April 04, 2002Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Member
Picture of hjs157
posted Hide Post
quote:
Originally posted by Rightwire:
One thing I've noticed in the last 5+ years is that whatever the DNC accuses the GOP of, they are likely doing themselves to a higher degree.


Absolutely +1. It's a strategy straight out of the Saul Alinky playbook.
 
Posts: 3487 | Location: Western PA | Registered: July 20, 2010Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Member
posted Hide Post
quote:
Originally posted by sigfreund:
Writers for The Wall Street Journal aren’t hesitant about pointing out what they consider to be Trump’s foibles, but they are far more even-handed in their discussions about politics and the state of the nation in general than the rest of the BS news media businesses. The above piece isn’t an unusual one-off by a token conservative, and I’m not the least surprised that it was published in the paper.

I have subscribed to the WSJ for years and that’s because they cater to my biases, … err, report the facts better than any other major news source I’m familiar with.


totally agree

it's basically the last trustworthy 'objective' newspaper remaining IMO

------------------------------------


Proverbs 27:17 - As iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another.
 
Posts: 8940 | Location: Florida | Registered: September 20, 2004Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Waiting for Hachiko
Picture of Sunset_Va
posted Hide Post
quote:
Originally posted by Sig209:
quote:
Originally posted by sigfreund:
Writers for The Wall Street Journal aren’t hesitant about pointing out what they consider to be Trump’s foibles, but they are far more even-handed in their discussions about politics and the state of the nation in general than the rest of the BS news media businesses. The above piece isn’t an unusual one-off by a token conservative, and I’m not the least surprised that it was published in the paper.

I have subscribed to the WSJ for years and that’s because they cater to my biases, … err, report the facts better than any other major news source I’m familiar with.


totally agree

it's basically the last trustworthy 'objective' newspaper remaining IMO

------------------------------------


Years ago my son had to subscribe to the WSJ for a college project. I began reading it after he had finished the issues, and found it to be very objective in just about all of the topics.

Glances at it present day issues, shows it's not changed.


美しい犬
 
Posts: 6673 | Location: Near the Metropolis of Tightsqueeze, Va | Registered: February 18, 2007Reply With QuoteReport This Post
  Powered by Social Strata  
 

SIGforum.com    Main Page  Hop To Forum Categories  The Lounge    The Democrats Gave In to Radicals and Gave Up on Common Sense (opinion by WSJ)

© SIGforum 2024