> Not when "mainstream liberals" (who won't even use the L-word) are to the
> right of Richard Nixon.
-This debate (i.e. is the DLC to the right of Dick Nixon?) proved to be -eminently unilluminating way back in February -If Richard Nixon were reincarnated and ran for president in '04, I doubt any -of the items listed below would make their way onto his platform
Let go back in time and have Nixon run on the current Demoratic positions of gay rights, full abortion rights, full prescription drugs, no drilling in ANWR, blocking all former segregationist judges, and the list can go on. Nixon wouldn't have supported any of them. Yes, times have changed-- and in many cases for the better, despite Reagan and the Gingrichites.
Any liberal positions Nixon had were just attempts (often cynical) to create conservative versions of more progressive bills that Democrats in Congress were pushing. The GOP and Bush officially pushed a nice-sounding national health care plan back in 1994, until they were able to defeat the Clinton plan. Then, the minute they took control of Congress, they buried their own health care plan without a trace.
This retroactive hagiography for a mass murderer of millions of Vietnamese and Cambodians still just leaves me stunned every time it's repeated.
-- Nathan Newman