Louis Proyect wrote: > I thought it was fairly shrewd of him [David Brooks] to make the case > that the next Democratic president will run the country like Bill Clinton, > whether it is his wife or that "change" guy.
It's not shrewdness. It's wishful thinking. Of course, in politics, anything can happen -- as Babe Ruth would say of baseball. Even Brooks' fantasies might be realized. But the fact is that the fundamental political conditions of the country have changed in the last 7 years. Bush happened. 9/11 happened. The war on Afghanistan and Iraq happened. Katrina happened. The need for universal health care is more widespread and intense now than it's ever been. The level of political participation, whichever way we measure it, has increased significantly. The ideological center of gravity of the country has shifted. Just so that the obvious is transparent enough: That doesn't mean that I'm predicting a proletarian revolution in the U.S. I just think that Hillary Clinton or Barack Obama -- or even McCain -- will not be likely to run the country the way Bill Clinton did. There are hardened public expectations and political forces non-existent back then that will constrain their actions. There will be struggle and the outcome is to be decided.
