Belated Epiphany
So someone writing for the American Prospect has finally found a clue. How nice. Too bad other people aren't quite paying attention. Mr. Tomasky thinks one of the issues facing the donks is lack of any coherent philosophy.
Gee, did you come up with this all by yourself? It's hard to form a coherent philosophy around "government should give you stuff". I have remarked to J on occasion that the only ideas being generated come out of the conservative and libertarian sides of American politics. Liberals in general and donks in particular have nothing to offer except the tired failures of socialism and the endless tweaking of poorly thought out programs in a desire to achieve some utopian end state. Instead, donks have an endless debate about which segment of the population they're going to put the screws to in order to pay off some other segment. There is never an underlying idea on the order of "government is a necessary evil that should be tightly constrained and carefully monitored". The failures of big government are always in the execution of what is a noble idea. It's never the underlying premise that's flawed, always the manner in which the idea was expressed. The donks and the left have yet to examine any of the philosophical underpinnings for any of their pet programs, like "From each according to his abilities, to each according to his needs!" Or is there some other philosophical basis for the vast array of federal entitlements and transfer mechanisms? Somebody please explain it to me if there is.
So, yes, donks are pretty much reduced to talking about tactics and strategy. How else do they convince people that the same stupid ideas that have failed miserably everywhere they've been tried will work here? You're not going to have a real philosophy until you come up with some real ideas.
Of course, the piece has prompted some other commentary and rebuttal. Yet in all the blather, I have yet to hear a clear statement of philosophy or even a core belief from a donk. It's all crap about health care and social security and program-based nonsense. There's still no coherent end for all of the means being tossed around.
Gee, did you come up with this all by yourself? It's hard to form a coherent philosophy around "government should give you stuff". I have remarked to J on occasion that the only ideas being generated come out of the conservative and libertarian sides of American politics. Liberals in general and donks in particular have nothing to offer except the tired failures of socialism and the endless tweaking of poorly thought out programs in a desire to achieve some utopian end state. Instead, donks have an endless debate about which segment of the population they're going to put the screws to in order to pay off some other segment. There is never an underlying idea on the order of "government is a necessary evil that should be tightly constrained and carefully monitored". The failures of big government are always in the execution of what is a noble idea. It's never the underlying premise that's flawed, always the manner in which the idea was expressed. The donks and the left have yet to examine any of the philosophical underpinnings for any of their pet programs, like "From each according to his abilities, to each according to his needs!" Or is there some other philosophical basis for the vast array of federal entitlements and transfer mechanisms? Somebody please explain it to me if there is.
So, yes, donks are pretty much reduced to talking about tactics and strategy. How else do they convince people that the same stupid ideas that have failed miserably everywhere they've been tried will work here? You're not going to have a real philosophy until you come up with some real ideas.
Of course, the piece has prompted some other commentary and rebuttal. Yet in all the blather, I have yet to hear a clear statement of philosophy or even a core belief from a donk. It's all crap about health care and social security and program-based nonsense. There's still no coherent end for all of the means being tossed around.
posted by T at 5:14 PM
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