Legal Commentary

The Progressive Flank: Does It Exist?

By Big Tent Democrat

Glenn Greenwald discusses a John Judis piece about the absence of a progressive flank in our political discourse. Both pieces are good and the themes not unfamiliar to readers of this blog. As if to confirm the thesis forwarded by Judis, Greenwald and others (including me), DemfromCt at daily kos played the "unhinged" card on Krugman, in the best traditions of A Sullivan (prior to his conversion from adulating Bush to adulating Obama) because Krugman was critical of Obama on the stimulus package. But it also brought to mind the attacks, led by Atrios , on Ben Smith, who suggested there would be little progressive pushback against "entitlement reform." Atrios wrote:

I believe this is what we in the professional blogging biz call "trolling," but I'll bite. The Left, including yours truly, will create an epic 360 degree sh[*]tstorm if Obama and the Dems decide that cutting Social Security benefits is a good idea.

I think Atrios is right on that particular issue (after all, in 2005 Josh Marshall in particular made his name on the fight against privatizing social security - the issue is too near and dear to the hearts of the progressive flank to let pass lightly), but is Smith's underlying premise really wrong? Is it not true that there is a "relative silence of liberal activists" regarding the Obama Administration's non-progressive actions? Is there any real pushback from the view that Obama is the 11 dimensional chess master when he triangulates? Not really imo.

We'll see if that changes.

Speaking for me only

Full post as published by TalkLeft on February 13, 2009 (boomark / email).