On Apr 1, 2012, at 4:55 PM, Michael Smith wrote:
> Couldn'ta said it better myself, nor half so well. The 'right' is a bogeyman.
It doesn't have to be. None of us three is using fear of the right as cover for apologetics for Dems. Whom does the modern Republican party represent? Why did it move so far to the right? Is it elite opinion, demographic shifts in the electorate, some combination of the two? What is the mass appeal of right-wing politics, which are fundamentally about preserving the power of elites? I know everyone says the Dems have essentially tailed the Reps in the rightward move, but in fact the partisan divide in Congress now is far greater than it was 30 or 40 years ago, a fact that people like you and Carrol never bother to address.
Doug