As Frum notes in his article when the Democrats got in they passed conservative legislation. The so-called liberal-left at least in the Democratic party are in favor of a continued aggressive foreign policy no less so than conservatives. The health care plans of both Obama and Clinton are written so as to not challenge insurers and are much less progressive than most European type universal plans even in their present form. What sort of great leap forward can we expect from these triumphant left-liberal Democrats?
--- Doug Henwood <dhenwood at panix.com> wrote:
>
> On Feb 7, 2008, at 12:25 PM, Charles Brown wrote:
>
> > we are still in the throes of Reaganism
>
> Interesting piece in the FT - by David Frum, no less
> - on how we may
> be exiting those throes.
>
> Doug
>
> ----
>
> Financial Times - February 7, 2008
>
> Beware the coming Democratic sea-change
> By David Frum
>
> The conservative ascendancy in American politics is
> coming to an end.
> For three decades, the right has dominated, with the
> Republicans
> winning five of the seven presidential elections
> since 1980.
> Conservatives did more than just win elections: even
> when liberals
> gained power, they governed on conservative terms.
>
> What were the most important accomplishments of the
> Clinton
> presidency? Balancing the budget, welfare reform and
> the expansion of
> Nato - not exactly left-of-centre projects. And of
> Jimmy Carter's?
> The deregulation of the airline and natural gas
> industries.
>
> Neither president set out to accomplish these goals.
> Indeed, they
> often resisted them. In the end they had to accept
> the limits of the
> possible - just as Republican presidents Dwight
> Eisenhower and
> Richard Nixon accepted the limits of the possible in
> the liberal era
> from 1930 to 1975.
>
> Neither Mr Clinton nor Mr Carter created a single,
> major, permanent
> new national social programme. Mr Clinton failed to
> bequeath power to
> his chosen successor; Mr Carter failed even to win a
> second term.
>
> John Mitchell, Richard Nixon's attorney-general,
> predicted in 1970:
> "This country is going so far right you won't
> recognise it." His
> prophecy was vindicated. Now its time is up: 2008 is
> shaping up to be
> the first decisive Democratic victory since 1964 - a
> 1980 in reverse.
> The signs are gathering everywhere. Three-quarters
> of Americans now
> describe the country as "on the wrong track". Almost
> 90 per cent
> express strong dissatisfaction with the costly
> healthcare system.
>
> In primaries and caucuses, Democratic contests have
> drawn more voters
> than Republican ones. An early estimate after Super
> Tuesday suggests
> that, thus far, 11m Americans have cast ballots for
> Republican
> candidates, while more than 15m have voted for
> Democratic ones.
> Democrats outpolled Republicans by 20 per cent even
> in the state of
> South Carolina, maybe the most conservative in the
> nation.
>
> Usually pundits expect that the party that chooses
> its nominee first
> will win the election. That will probably not be
> true this time.
> Although the Hillary Clinton-Barack Obama contest
> looks likely to
> continue longer than John McCain's march to the
> Republican
> nomination, Democrats tell pollsters they like both
> candidates - they
> are just deciding which they like best. Republicans
> remain divided,
> with Mr McCain, Mitt Romney and Mike Huckabee each
> passionately
> disliked by opposing factions within their party.
>
> In polls, Americans express preference for Democrats
> over Republicans
> on almost every issue surveyed, including such
> traditional Republican
> advantages as taxes, ethics and competence.
>
> In 2002, equal numbers of Americans identified as
> Republicans and
> Democrats. In the six years since, Republican
> identification has
> collapsed back to the level recorded before Ronald
> Reagan. The
> decline has been steepest among young voters. If
> they eat right,
> exercise and wear seatbelts, today's 20-somethings
> will be voting
> against George W. Bush deep into the 2060s. Most
> ominously, US polls
> show an ideological sea change: a desire for a more
> activist
> government, a loss of interest in the tax question
> and a shift to the
> left on most social issues (although not,
> interestingly, abortion).
>
> As things are going, the Democratic nominee will win
> a majority of
> the votes cast (unlike Mr Clinton). They will almost
> certainly gain
> an increased majority in Congress (unlike Mr
> Carter). If the present
> mood lasts, that nominee will have a green light to
> move the US in
> new policy directions (unlike either Mr Clinton or
> Mr Carter).
>
> The stage has been set for the boldest and most
> dramatic redirection
> of US politics since Reagan's first year in office.
> Of course, there
> are no guarantees in politics. An inept president
> could bungle his or
> her chances. Unexpected events could intrude: a
> nuclear test in Iran,
> a major terrorist attack on US soil or some
> attention-grabbing
> political scandal. But given moderate luck and
> skill, the next
> president could join Reagan, Lyndon Johnson and
> Franklin Roosevelt as
> one of the grand reshapers of politics and
> government.
>
> Tragically, that reshaping is likely to be for the
> worse. The things
> that Mrs Clinton and Mr Obama want to do are likely
> to prove costly
> and counterproductive, if not outright disastrous. A
> greater
> government role in healthcare, higher taxes, tighter
> regulation, more
> social welfare, an increased flow of low-skilled
> migrants with
> amnesty for those already here, a cut-and-run from
> Iraq: these are
> not measures likely to improve US competitiveness or
> enhance
> America's standing in the world.
>
> To prevent these negative consequences - to retrieve
> victory from
> impending defeat - would require more creativity and
> responsiveness
> than Republicans and conservatives have displayed
> for many years.
> Unless American conservatism can rejuvenate itself,
> the odds favour
> the liberal left holding sway until the day that its
> own errors and
> delusions lay it low again.
>
> ---
>
> The writer, a resident fellow at the American
> Enterprise Institute,
> is the author of Comeback: Conservatism That Can Win
> Again
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