Cross posted at Rational Resistance.
As we remember George McGovern, I am struck by a quote from his book What It Means To Be a Democrat.
As quoted in the Times, McGovern says:
“We are at a crossroads,” he wrote, “over how the federal government in Washington and state legislatures and city councils across the land allocate their financial resources. Which fork we take will say a lot about Americans and our values.”
There is no question among the writers and readers here that the Democratic Party does not always live up to its ideals. There are some who seem to take particular pleasure in pointing out our shortcomings, while ignoring those of the Republicans. Nevertheless, the reason the Democratic Party can be challenged for failing to live up to its ideals is that the Democratic Party has ideals. When our party disappoints us it is because we know it's capable of more than it sometimes achieves.
When we work here for more and better Democrats George McGovern is the kind of Democrat I, for one, am thinking about.
The media malpractice of false equivalency would have us believe that the views on the “extreme” left of the Democratic Party are equally out of the mainstream as are the views of the extreme right of the Republican Party; but, in reality, that “extreme” left is only struggling to hang on to the social contract accepted by both parties decades ago.
Even with that fairly modest effort to hold back the tide of “my way or the highway” colonialism on the part of the GOP, the Democratic Party candidates could not differ more dramatically from their Republican counterparts.