Let's see what Martin Peretz thinks of them today:
The 1972 election and the domestic drama surrounding the Vietnam War caused a major schism between Democrats. On one side were supporters of Mr. McGovern, the U.S. senator and presidential candidate who preached engagement and accommodation with communism. On the other were those who thought the rise of the McGovernites spelled disaster for Democrats and the nation, and who were determined to return the party to a responsible center on foreign policy.There's plenty of detail at the link.
Mr. Peretz, then a Harvard University lecturer and a veteran of the antiwar movement, was in the latter camp. Two years after Richard Nixon thumped Mr. McGovern in the election, he purchased the New Republic, the flagship liberal magazine founded in 1914. Under Mr. Peretz's ownership the magazine promoted a set of foreign-policy ideas that gradually reconquered the Democratic mainstream. Chief among these were a willingness to deploy military power to advance national interests and values, plus an abiding commitment to Israel as a mirror of American ideals in an unfree Middle East.
Since selling the New Republic to Facebook co-founder Chris Hughes in 2011, however, Mr. Peretz, now 73, has emerged as a vociferous critic of Barack Obama and much of the Democratic foreign-policy establishment. His break with the president he campaigned for in 2008 has been sharp and painful. The Obama administration's worldview, he now thinks, represents a radical departure from the "healthily hard-ass" foreign policy he has long championed on the left. Mr. Peretz is especially disturbed by Mr. Obama's failure to support Israel at a time when the Jewish state faces an unprecedented combination of threats.
Actually there was a time when both parties weren't "bat crap insane." Now, we have extreme nuttiness on both sides - and the moderate middle throws up its hands and flips a coin.
ReplyDeleteBut if you are going to argue that the (whole) Democratic Party is "bat crap insane" but the GOP has maintained a calm sanity in the past decade, then you belong in the "insane" column.
A much more likely explanation: you're so much further left than you think you are, making those of us who are reasonably centrist look extreme by comparison.
ReplyDeleteThat's just darn funny, D. I almost spit out my coffee. Thanks for the chuckle.
ReplyDeleteToday's DNC is nothing like it was even ten years ago. Systematically surreptitious candidates that supported Green Party policies and platforms have taken over the party. Obama was the fruition of the overthrow of the Old Guard. If you haven't already, go watch "We Will Not Be Silenced" by Gigi Gaston. The Clintons were the last of the Old Guard and her camp knew what Obama's team had done. Gaston is a Democrat and the commentary is all from Democrats. Vote shaving, outright fraud and delegate intimidation are just more of the same things they want to impose through complaining about voter ID's and promoting the loosey goosey mail in ballots that states like Oregon have. Their attempt to limit military absentee votes has somewhat tipped their hand, but make no mistake, this election will not be clean and I'm not even sure at this point it will happen. I hate to sound negative, but I just don't see anything positive about anything happening now.
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