On Wed, 4 Mar 2009, Doug Henwood wrote:
> [except now they're the core of the GOP]
They were when DDE wrote this letter too. DDE was parachuted in and strong-armed onto a party who otherwise would have elected Robert "Mr. Conservative" Taft, the man who led the conservative coalition who opposed the New Deal and wanted to roll it back (as well as opposing the Marshall Plan, NATO, the early forms of the EU, etc).
It was Eisenhower's take-over that was the impetus to the John Birch Society -- it was their reaction to the fact that "both parties are now the same -- Democratic." In many ways, the story of the "great conservative march from splinter to central committee" is really the story of "the DDE temporary shift." DDE was the only time in this century that the moderates ever took over that party and held power. And it was the exception that proved the rule. They'd been out of power for 20 years and would sell their soul to get power, which they did; and DDE was literally the most popular man in the world, being thought of as the man who won WWII -- they knew if they sold it, they would win.
What we see in this letter that DDE wrote to his brother Edgar is a great example of aggressive bi-partisan rhetoric on DDE's part, identifying everyone who doesn't agree with him as outside the common sense consensus. Which is exactly the card that Obama is playing now.
BTW, the bi-partisan rhetoric card has a second plus in Obama's case: it completely insulated him from the charge of being an elitist, and does it in a way that doesn't disparage learning and expertise. He's asked all the experts, and they tell him what he's doing is just common sense. That's what bipartisanism really means when he says it: that the democratic party line is everybody's line - it's the common sense line.
Liberals have been hoist by the elitist petard for decades. They can't use the Repug defense (denigrate brains and lionize the uneducated) because believing in education and expertise is their soul. And here is one of the most elite of them, especially because of the contrast with his predecessor, and he's juked that standard attack out of its socks.
Michael