I think there are a few things that Steve Almond is missing in his post at Salon warning the Democrats of the problems their own party is facing. For example, in this:
Obama’s signature legislative achievement, the Affordable Care Act, is essentially the program Bob Dole proposed back in 1993. His solution to our suicidal dependence on fossil fuels—cap-and-trade—is yet another recycled Republican idea.
he doesn’t seem to understand that the Overton Window had changed. What was pretty conventional moderate Republican thought in 1993 was anything but by 2009. What was completely unacceptable to Democrats in 1993 had become completely acceptable by 2009. Characterizing the PPACA as a “Republican plan” is a failure to understand the dynamic nature of politics.
And note that he’s implicitly characterizing President Obama as a moderate. In his Senate career Barack Obama had the farthest left voting record of any sitting senator. He was as far left as you could be and still be in the political mainstream. Thinking of him as a moderate is buying into what the Republicans have been saying for years: that President Obama has dragged his party to the left.
What I think has actually happened is that the Overton Window hasn’t merely shifted it’s expanded. Somebody (George Will?) described American politics as a football game played between the 40 yard lines. A half century ago Brits pointed out that both the American Democratic and Republican Parties fit neatly within the British Conservative Party.
I think that has changed. I don’t know what the implications of the change are but I think that has changed.
“Window” is misleading. At this point it’s more accurately called the “Overton Peephole” or better yet the “Overton Gloryhole.”
Well, Bernie Sanders is certainly way off to the left, certainly further than I wish to go. And Ted Cruz is the other extreme. Neither has anything useful to offer. They don’t represent competing positions so much as competing delusions.
By the way, Vox did a poll of Bernie supporters to see basically whether they were willing to pay higher taxes. (Spoiler alert: nope.)
http://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2016/4/14/11421744/bernie-sanders-tax-revolution
I hate to rain on the joyful idealism of the Bernie supporters but it’s not idealism when all you’re doing is picking pockets. It may be good policy (it’s not) but it sure isn’t idealism. During the Spanish civil war idealism meant running off to get shot by Franco’s people. Now it’s just asking me to pay your way to a BA in French Literature. A somewhat different level of commitment.
Thought about this and decided that the affordable care act is too incremental, and too bureaucratic to be Obama’s signature achievement.
What really stands out for me is his normalization of gay marriage, and as commander in chief, the appointment of Gay senior officers in the military command structure. Gay procurement officers, Gay recruiters, and Gay counselors along with Gay Chaplin’s. This I believe will be His enduring legacy.