THE GREENING OF THE LEFT:

Shame on Gephardt (Matthew Rothschild, October 3, 2002, The Progressive)

By leading the Democrats into the war tent, Gephardt has forfeited any right to legitimacy as Minority Leader. He and Joe Lieberman and the other Democrats who are echoing Bush, bellow for bellow, in bellicose rhetoric only serve to validate a main argument of Ralph Nader and the Green Party: that on issues of militarism and war, there is not a lot of difference between the Democrats and the Republicans.

You would think that at some point down the road the Greens could become a significant threat to the Democratic Party. To the extent that Bill Clinton succeeded in remaking the Democratic Party as a more moderate entity--one that is tougher on crime, hawkish on budget deficits, mildly more hawkish in foreign policy, and beholden to business interests--he distanced it from its traditional hard core of supporters. He was able to get away with it because he won them back the presidency, which after LBJ seemed like it had become permanently Republican (with the exception of the razor-thin, post-Watergate win by Jimmy Carter). But now, especially if the Democrats don't win big this November, you've got a party that's sold its soul and has nothing to show for it.
Posted by Orrin Judd at October 7, 2002 11:09 PM