My, everyone seems atwitter this morning about a couple of missives from the Left Blogosphere. First, there was Sunday’s op-ed in the Washington Post from Kos complaining that Hillary Clinton was too conservative to suit him. It might be nice for the Master of the Netroots actually to get a candidate elected before proclaiming himself lord of all he surveys.
Then, today, Atrios AKA Duncan Black of Eschaton has risen to the challenge of producing a list of the issues that the netroots has established a clear consensus on. I’ve been having problems reaching blogspot this morning so I’ve been forced to read his list elsewhere. I was struck by several things in reading the list. The first thing I noticed is that none of the genuinely serious contentious issues is among his list of consensus issues. Is that because, well, there’s no consensus on those issues, no consensus on the left on the issues, or he doesn’t like the consensus that exists?
The second thing I noticed is how nostalgic and backward-looking this list is. “Return to those thrilling days of yesteryear…†He wants to restore the estate tax, increase FICA, and increase income taxes. While I agree that we need to restore fiscal sanity to the federal government, an assertion that there’s some sort of national consensus (except possibly in the Left Blogosphere) that we need to pay more taxes surprises me.
There certainly wasn’t a consensus on paper ballots when the current nonsense emerged after the debacle in Florida in the 2000 election. Those were paper ballots, remember? Wasn’t Atrios among the complainers? Apparently, while I wasn’t paying attention, a consensus back in the direction of paper ballots has emerged. I’m in favor of actual physical ballots but I hope he doesn’t mean that some sort of consensus in the direction of a fully manual system has emerged. We need a paper trail not necessarily a fully manual system.
I’ve already expressed myself frequently here on the subject of the minimum wage: it’s not an efficient means to the putative end. Revising the Earned Income Tax Credit is a better policy approach. Doesn’t have as much curb appeal, though.
I’ve also written about corporate pensions here. His prescription is oddly backward-looking: at this point a requirement that companies fund their pensions fully will probably resuilt in those few companies that continue to have defined-benefit programs abandoning them. Heck, making the PBGC a real insurance program rather than the corporate giveaway it is now would probably kill the defined-benefit pension in this country.
Universal health care (not insurance n.b.). Drug legalization. Higher CAFE standards (?!). Improved access to daycare. Are there really consensuses on these issues?
Meanwhile, the Bull Moose, the voice of the DLC, has come up what I think is the perfect description for the netroots:
“McGovernites with modemsâ€
You’re absolutely right – the Atrios list is disjointed and has no theme. It certainly isn’t the “contract on America” of 1994, and that’s why it will fail. Instead of talking about raising taxes, etc, we ought to be suggesting what we expect government to do, and then once in power, figure out the fiscal mechanisms to do that. But going up front with the tax increases didn’t do Mondale any good.
J., I’d genuinely like to see a Democratic Party that could win national elections but I don’t think this list is a move in that direction. I don’t even think this list is a move in the direction of Democratic control of the House.
There are several potential strategies for Democrats to do either of those things.