Oct. 12 Open Thread: Liberal Reluctantly Sees Some Good in Socialism
In a long essay on the rise of socialism as a political force, Jonathan Chait grapples with the fears of center-left liberals who think socialism’s goals are too scary to most Americans. He also spends a lot of time attacking those goals, but ultimately decides socialism could be good — for liberalism, which he sees as working only when mediating between competing interests:
In a two-party system, the optimal number of ideologically extreme parties is zero. But given that pushing that number below one is not an option in the short term, there is a case to be made that two is better than zero. The Republican Party of the modern era has waged class war that has metastasized into a war on academia, media, and governing norms. The Democrats have built a trans-class identity, out of which they have labored to hold together the besieged consensus. But it is ultimately hard to mediate a class war that is being waged from one side.
Well worth the read for anyone interested in the direction the Democratic Party will take from here forward.
While Democrats stroke their chins, Republicans wage the intellectual equivalent of poison-gas warfare. Chauncey DeVega dissects the Trump op-ed (which USA Today is, rightfully, still taking major shit for running) focusing on the empty but menacing phrase “open-borders socialism” that Democrats allegedly stand for.
Sen. Chuck Schumer cut another deal on judges so red-state senators could go home to campaign. Progressives gnash their teeth in response.
The apparent murder of a journalist by Saudi Arabia is percolating into the news cycle, with hints that the administration might have known about this ahead of time. Turkey says it has audio and video evidence that Jamal Khashoggi was killed inside the Saudi Arabian embassy in Istanbul. Given the business ties between Jared Kushner and the new crown prince Mohammed bin Salman, not to mention the importance of arms sales to the kingdom that would be halted if sanctions were imposed, this story will keep growing.
“In a two-party system, the optimal number of ideologically extreme parties is zero. But given that pushing that number below one is not an option in the short term, there is a case to be made that two is better than zero.”
I guess my 20-ish years of saying that on this blog has been worth it afterall. Now that people like Chait are saying it the counterbalancing left should be a thing in about another 1 score years.
I don’t believe in becoming radicalized in response to the oppostion’s radicalization. I myself am radicalizing, however. Of course I’m keeping that latter part completely private.
American politics have to steer hard left for a while to get back to the center.
Has anyone seen this from our neighbor to the north? All these country club republican wusses are trying to take a page out of the Trump/Christie playbook and failing miserably (c.f. Lindsay Graham’s meltdown at the Kavanaugh hearings) but this one really tops them all:
https://shareblue.com/gop-nominee-scott-wagner-threatens-stomp-governor-tom-wolf-face-with-golf-spikes/
ETA: Be sure to watch the actual video.
Thanks for this. If that’s his idea of Trumpian belligerence, no wonder he’s losing. You shouldn’t tell the guy to wear a catcher’s mask because you’re going to stomp his face with golf cleats. You should throw your martini at him, then stomp his face with golf cleats.
Well…. we could pelt him with brie and caviar. Then again he might like that and deem it “kinky”.
Please. Brie or caviar, never both. How gauche.
No golfer has metal golf cleats anymore. Hey Buddy, 1989 called. They want their menacing footwear back.
Best twitter response:
https://twitter.com/Popehat/status/1050796650552119296?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1050796650552119296&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.rawstory.com%2F2018%2F10%2Finternet-roasts-rich-guy-gop-candidate-golf-spikes-threat-shall-valet-thrash-soundly%2F
I just saw a Carper ad. He is attempting to blunt the ads running against him criticizing his being in the pocket of big pharma. The ad tells some whoppers, like how Tom fought for Medicaid part D, the part that said the government could not negotiate prices with pharma. He also voted to trim the authority of DEA to supervise opioid distribution by the big 3 drug distribution companies, creating the opioid epidemic we are all living with.
As usual, what will save Tom despite this feckless behavior is that Rob Arlett would be far worse. Thank you Kerri Harris, you are an answer to the Carper problem.
From what I see on social media and various other places, the Arlett campaign seems to be ratcheting up it’s effort to expose Tom Carper for his history of spousal abuse and the fact that he lied about it in the early eighties. I’m curious to see how Democrats will react considering the #metoo movement and anger at recently confirmed Justice Kavinaugh.
That tub has been thumped too many times to make a difference now.