[lbo-talk] The Empire's Freedom

[Seth Ackerman]

Nathan Newman wrote:

>-Whenever I hear this argument, I always want to ask: What if you
>-compared Northern Dems from 1965 to today's Northern Dems?
>
>A more interesting question-- although the Northern Dems back then were 
>voting to put those reactionary Southerners in leadership positions -- but 
>even those northern Dems were pretty weak on a range of issues.  And let's 
>be real-- on gay rights and womens rights, you have to look at Dems today as 
>a massive advance.
>
>  
>

Well yeah, but then on gay rights George W. Bush is a major advance over 
Franklin D. Roosevelt.

I don't doubt that you could find some Joe Liebermans or Ben Nelsons in 
the class of '65. But I think there was more political space then for 
vigorous social-democratic rhetoric/ideology within the mainstream od 
the Democratic Party. Maybe I'm wrong.

Seth