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<div>Nathan:</div>
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<div>Your whole case rests on a series of counterfactuals. <i>
testimonium paupertatis.</i></div>
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<div>Shane Mage<br>
<br>
"Thunderbolt steers all
things." <span
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> <span
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> <span
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<div>Herakleitos of Ephesos, fr. 64</div>
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<blockquote type="cite" cite>----- Original Message -----<br>
From: "Justin Schwartz" <jkschw@hotmail.com><br>
>I am talking about the policies they did in fact<br>
>enact or advocate. I don't much care what politicians want, just
what they<br>
>do.<br>
<br>
Which would make sense as a standard if the Presidency was a
dictatorship.<br>
<br>
But the policies advocated or enacted are dependent on a
Presidenct's<br>
opponents in Congress. Essentially, you are judging Nixon highly
on the<br>
environment because he faced pro-environment legislator Edmund Muskie
and<br>
trashing Clinton because he faced Ted Stevens and his ilk.<br>
<br>
As I noted, the only standard should be not advocacy or results, but
the<br>
results if you subtract the President in question from the political
equation<br>
of their day. If subtracting Nixon and giving Congress a free
hand would<br>
have made the country a more progressive place, then he is objectively
a<br>
rightwing influence on history. Contrary wise, subtracting
Clinton and<br>
giving Congress a free hand would probably have prevented NAFTA
(assuming<br>
there was no GOP President to push passage as Bush has with fast
track) and<br>
caused absolute devastion to every other progressive policy.<br>
<br>
On that basis, Clinton is a progressive figure. And the
rightwing and many<br>
of the poorest folks, especially african-americans, understand this
and<br>
either hate or admire him for that fact.<br>
<br>
-- Nathan Newman</blockquote>
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