Signs of Recognition

There comes a point in the arc of every Poliltical Thesis where its adherents start to see its end.

This is a scary time for them. What is scariest is that each one of them has to go through it alone.

If this sounds like death, it is in a way. Political death has no resurrection. You don’t see New Deal Democrats any more, nor Teddy Roosevelt Republicans. The only survival of such trends is in neo-land. (I can’t wait for the first article about the new  "neo-liberalism." It will be about as brain dead as such punditry comes.)

There are many reactions to this. Denial is one. (It’s not happening.) Deflection is another. (It’s not my fault.) Projection is a third. (I’m not doing what I’m doing, they are.) Plotting a dictatorship is yet another.

These reactions are most common among leaders in the movement, people who are about to go into the poltical wilderness for the rest of their times, people who are about to be ruined, and have their reputations destroyed.

But far more troubling (if you’re conservative) is what my wife heard on the phone the other day. Her dad is worried. He’s a long-time conservative foot-soldier and he’s suddenly fearing the apocalypse. He sees a war in Lebanon, a war in Iraq, a searing heat wave, drought everywhere, Democrats on the march and now he’s worried.

Well, of course. Worry doesn’t start coursing through true believers until the evidence is so clear as to be undeniable. Few New Deal Democrats worried about Lyndon Johnson’s chances in 1966. Few Republican progressives really worried about Herbert Hoover in 1930. Yet tidal waves were rising against both.

What is keeping this tidal wave from rising? Nothing. But the lack of a
compelling alternative vision isn’t helping. Republicans had one in
1966, but Democrats didn’t have one in 1930 and it did not hurt them.
So it’s not essential that there be one for some change to happen.

I just wish that Democrats would realize there is such a vision right under their noses.