Republicans are cynical about politics from the jump. Political cynicism fuels them. Democrats are idealistic about politics. When they become cynical they tend to drop out.Which is true as far as it goes. What bothers me is that nowhere in that article does he recognize the obvious realities I mentioned in that first link, which are that things move rightward because it's where the money is, and because conservatives these days don't let their politicians get away with heresy, whereas progressives let theirs do it all the time.
After the Midterms: Why Democrats Move to the Center, and Republicans Don’t
Count Reich's notion as another reason, but not the most important. Count his failure to acknowledge those other points as a problem Democratic pundits need to get over.
3 comments:
I've been involved in democratic politics since I was 18 at least and I was always cynical to a greater or lesser extent, as is anyone who messes around in politics.
The reason I'm not voting (for the most part) this time is because I have never seen a party turn on a dime the way the current democratic party has and go out of it's way to screw it's supporters.
That is not cynicism that is intelligent evaluation of the political reality. Can't reward the people who screwed me.
A second thought, the quote is just a justification for the apparent whipping the dems are about to get at the polls.
"It is not our (the leaderships) fault. It is that dag gong cynicism we had nothing to do with."
I haven't been all that actively involved in politics. Still, to me it seems that progressives generally are somewhat idealistic - we want a better society. We don't vote just for our own welfare. We aren't the ones who keep asking "Why am I paying for something that doesn't benefit me directly?" I think that's what that quote was about. I think that's Robert Reich's view, too.
It might be an excuse, but I think it's more likely that it's just that they can't see things from the perspective of people who are just getting by. When you're one of those people, things look a lot different.
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