Jane Hamsher writes:
The GOP doesn’t throw their extremists under the bus in order to seem “reasonable” and “discipline its own,” it invites them to the fucking White House and makes everyone show up and pay homage. And it’s not because Laura admires their keen fashion sense, or because what they say just isn’t as “outrageous” as MoveOn or Pete Stark. They know the strategic value of having those people out there to move the goalposts, while they can sweep in behind them and claim the territory they want.
While I may not always agree with the tactics and speech that those on the “far far left” engage in, I’ve never found it necessary (or desirable) to publicly rebuke them. I’m happy they’re out there making me look moderate. Without them, the putative “center” shifts to…the DLC.
By silencing their left margin altogether, the Democratic Party has allowed the lunatic fringe on the right-wing to take power. If you doubt the wisdom of that analysis, please bear in mind that the left flank that Roosevelt was co-opting when he created the (liberal) New Deal were actual communists. They were genuine, actual left-wingers, and they are virtually non-existent these days. The result is that the fake "centrists" make it sound like radical left craziness to say that you should get an honest day's pay for an honest day's work.
Of course, Thereisnospoon wrote in his now-classic post about the Overton Window:
This is something that the Democrats still do not understand. You win policy debates by crafting arguments for extreme positions--and then shifting the entire window of debate. You do not win by trying to figure out which position is most popular among Americans right now.
I don't think it's only the Democratic party that is silencing the further and far left. For instance, consider central blogtopia's slamming or ignoring of most all protest politics but especially the mass mobilizations that happen once or twice a year. Consider Kos' isolation of topics he finds too embarrassing to the discourse to allow to exist. The issue of electronic voting (admittedly my personal hobby horse) is still marginalized by the bloggy powers that be, which is inexcusable. People are people, nobody signed up to be a roll model or save the world, can't care about or even link to everything - agreed. But there definitely is a sort of too-cool-for-school attitude out there that doesn't help end the war, doesn't preserve the integrity of our vote, doesn't get us universal health care, doesn't restore the Constitution or do anything really other than make the GOP smile.
Matt Taibbi identifies the root problem: (emph mine)
OK, to begin with, I'm just absolutely tired of this bullshit coming from people like Klein who insist that "leftists" are "rooting" for American failure. Let's get this straight: there are no "leftists" in modern-day America. Or, rather, there about ten of them, and you can find absolutely every single one of them at the next antiwar or anti-anything protest in Washington; they all fit in one section of the park behind the White House, where you can find pretty much all of them passing out small stacks of socialist fliers, mainly to each other. These socialists are committed, dedicated, utterly serious political activists, which makes them absolutely atypical Americans, which is why there are so few of them.
Until the center left everywhere is willing to play nice and really engage or at least acknowledge positively the existence of the people Taibbi is describing, the Progressive movement will be spinning its wheels and get pulled further and further to the right. And we're already to the point where both major parties are Republican. I'm not sure how much further right we can move and still be America.
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