I’ve heard from a lot of Bush supporters that they voted for Bush simply because he had a vision, and Kerry did not. Hard to argue with that. The Democrats haven’t really had a new idea since, oh… 1964? Ok, I’ll give you environmentalism and international human rights in the 70s. But that’s about it. Since then, they’ve been playing defense, defending their gains (in civil rights, welfare, health care, and the environment) from an ever-stronger GOP.
This week in the L.A. Weekly, John Powers argues for that vision thing, saying that the left needs to re-invent itself “in a hypercapitalist world in which socialism can no longer be used as a threat or a promise.”
He goes on to cite four “values” that the left needs to embrace: virtue, freedom, pleasure, and utopia.
They’re good points, all of them. Virtue points to the liberal values of peace, justice, and equality. Freedom means boldly embracing internationalism. Pleasure is learning to laugh and play hard (and not take ourselves so damn seriously).
But Utopia is my favorite. As an unapologetic technologist and futurist, I resent the fact that Americans are no longer as sanguine about the future as they once were. It has dangerous implications.
So here’s to the future! The Democrats have become reactionaries, and that’s a BAD thing.
Now Playing: Episode 366
Obama staffs up, Detroit comes to DC and finally, Iraq and the US come to a security agreement.
Links Mentioned: Iraq SOFA … pros and cons of a bailout.
