At 09/11/02 21:36 -0500, Thad Williamson wrote:
FWIW, there is no parallel group to the DLC within the Republican Party arguing with significant influence that the way to win elections is to be moderate. Instead they are running, for the most part, on a hard right agenda, and winning.
In Britain, the Conservative Party is falling over itself to occupy the middle ground, so fearful is it of being unelectable.
In the last week there has been a crisis of the leadership of Ian Duncan Smith, who has only held the post for some 18 months, because of bad tactics about a vote of conscience over whether to allow adoption by unmarried couples including gays. This was seen as a tremendously important signal of whether the Conservative Party could shake off its "nasty" image.
Support for the Conservatives has sunk to 29%.
Blair is tightening the screws by planning a government programme, to be read by the Queen on Wednesday, catching the headlines about coming down on law and order.
No matter that a lot of this will be window dressing: New Labour is firmly occupying middle ground, and managing consensus flexibly and in some ways scientifically, in that is in for the total managment of society.
I generally assume the ice cream salesmen on the beach theory of bourgeois two party politics: they have to concentrate near the centre of the beach. Unfortunately in the USA the beach appears to have moved, and no one can analyse it profoundly enough to outflank people like Bush.
Surprising as he is vulnerable in a number of areas.
But then marxists cannot come up with a more ideologically compelling strategy to shift the balance of debate in left leaning circles. Is the controversy on the left of the Democratic Party just between utterly pragmatic opportunists, and subjective idealists?
Perhaps someone could prove my suspicions wrong.
Chris Burford
London
