Legal Commentary

The Missing Left Flank

By Big Tent Democrat

Matt Yglesias:

[. . .] I wonder if Republican politicians are benefitting from a psychological anchor phenomenon around the fact that the media has adopted the conceit that there’s something called the “tea party movement” that’s distinct from the conservative base of the Republican Party. Voters seem to see themselves as about equidistant between Democrats and Tea Parties, which means they’re closer to Republicans than to Democrats. But it’s hard for me to think of important policy disputes between, say, John Boehner & Paul Ryan and tea party leaders.

Someone told me at Netroots Nation that in her opinion the group she works for had made a mistake in not diverting some funding away from HCAN and toward single-payer groups precisely in order to create this sort of anchor.

(Emphasis supplied.) That's sort of been my argument since 2007. I hoped that the Progressive Blogosphere could have been that Left Flank anchor, pulling the debate to the progressive side. Unfortunately, much of the progressive blogosphere decided that it was more important to denounce an independent Left Flank (Firebaggers anyone?) and to cheerlead the Democratic Party. This was a big mistake. Long story short, Yglesias' post is quite compelling.

Full post as published by TalkLeft on July 28, 2010 (boomark / email).