Matt Gunn has a nice little piece just utterly and totally destroying the Swift Boat loonies.  A satisfying read.

1:10:10 PM    comment []

David Broder's editorial in the Post today demonstrates either that he has an agenda or that he simply doesn't understand the way that the political makeup of the parties is working today. 

His central argument is this:

The centrist coalition of conservative Democrats and moderate Republicans that set Congress's agenda for decades in the middle of the 20th century has been steadily depopulated by tugs from opposite political poles.

The entire article centers around examples of moderate members of the GOP being challenged by far right-wingers, with Arlen Specter's narrow win over Pat Toomey serving as the primary example.  And that's, in general, a fair point and a relevant one--the GOP is being increasingly controlled by the far right, and moderates are losing their place in the party.  The whole traditional ideology of the two parties has become obfuscated by developments in the last few years; formerly fiscally-disciplined Republicans now spend more than Democrats, and any notion that the GOP believes in small government is an absolute sham.  The whole party is in transition.

Broder's article, though, is pathetically one-sided--based on his thesis, one would assume that he'd provide some evidence of Democrats being split between moderate Blue Dog-types and the Naderesque left (because being at least as far left as Nader would be necessary in order to balance how far the scales are tipped by lunatics like Santorum or DeLay).  But there is no evidence of this at all, either in Broder's article or, frankly, in existence. 

It's not that there is no difference between the moderate and more-liberal Dems.  It's that the entire political spectrum has undeniably shifted to the right.  What used to be reasonably liberal is now "far" left.  What used to be crazy-off-the-scale right wing now controls the freaking government.  Broder's insinuation that both parties are being splintered is false on it's face, and naively overlooks the incredibly effective way that the right has managed to shift the goalposts.  That, after all, is why Nader had an impact in 2000--because the left doesn't feel they have a voice in the Democratic party.

His only example for the Dems--literally, the only example--is that Nancy Pelosi is a "classic San Francisco liberal".  And, indeed, Pelosi has (from my perspective) an excellent voting record, 100% from Planned Parenthood, over 90% from the League of Conservation Voters.  But she's absolutely not some left wing loony. 

If Pelosi was as far left as DeLay is far right, she'd be advocating a quick and violent transition to world socialism.  That's a fact.

Broder is allegedly the dean of political journalism, or something to that effect, but this is awfully shoddy.

1:08:34 PM    comment []