The very fact that they feel the need to "revive" that sort of liberalism is proof that it barely exists today, if at all. The "left" of the DP, such as it is, isn't terribly bellicose, but it's also pretty small. The mainstream of the DP isn't in any sense "liberal"; as Clinton himself put it, they're Eisenhower Republicans now. Doug
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Agreed. But the question that keeps haunting me is how did it ever come to this? Most of the Demos in public office are roughly between your age and mine. We lived in the same world at the same time, through the same history, some including Vietnam both here and there, the stupidity of the Reagan era and so forth.
Iraq was a completely transparent lie even before it started. And yet most of the Democrats voted for the war and supported it. They supported the Patriot Act and the Clinton administration layed the ground work. They go along with this whole War on Terror crapolla and support it. Even when it got down to torture and outright murder, there is barely a peep, a staggering silence.
Cynical appeal to public fear only goes so far in explaining it. Sucking up to corporate interest and even the money only goes so far. Eventually I get back to the idea they believe what they say, and what they say is ludicious.
This is why I started to try to figure out Strauss. If he could go through the same era and history as Arendt and come out on the opposite side---if I could figure that out, then maybe what's happened here would make more sense...
CG