....but here's hoping the "both sides are always equally wrong, even they're not" crowd takes note.

Your optimism about the chances of conventional wisdom being overtaken by events is touching. Remember who 'the party of fiscal responsibility' is, and for how long that notion's floated on air?

Balance is VERY important. I recently learned that in 1938 an elderly Jewish man slipped on the ice in Munich and fell against a shop window, cracking it, and that fact has changed my historical perspective entirely: obviously, Krystalnacht was a push!

Why is this story, fact, that the Democratic Congress has passed over 250 bills that would benefit all kinds of Americans that are simply sitting in the U.S. Senate without any action be taken because of Repiglican obstructionism hardly ever reported on by the Corporate Media ?

I keep hoping that Republican incumbents will realize that the whole Party of No thing isn't doing them a lot of good. They are likely to suffer the same fate as Democratic incumbents.

Republican incumbents will wake up one early November day and curse Mitch McConnell.

so there are not mirror images when it comes to the political parties. of course, not. the Democratic party is Republican lite. there is no left of center party anymore. it is all a form of Republicanism.

surprise, surprise. the masters of the political game don't like differences, nor do they allow it.

With the recent UK election in mind, maybe a different way to frame the current situation is that the current Democratic party is a kind of American version of a governing coalition.

In a parliamentary system the DCC element, the Progressive Caucus and the Blue Dogs would each probably be different parties, but given the vagaries of the American system they need to unite before the elections as a party, rather than afterwards as a governing coalition.

The GOP in this framing is the only true "party", with the narrow ideological platform and expectation of loyalty to the party prioritized above the need to govern.

It's not a perfect analogy and putting it this way would probably stir up the American Exceptionalists. But at least this framing recognizes that the Democratic and Republican parties at this point really are different species of animal.

Paradoxically, even liberals tend to push the equivalency meme out of a hope - mostly delusional - that it might rouse some latent moderates in the GOP to come out of the closet. That ignores the incentives on the right for groupthink. It also ignores the self-sustaining defeatism in confessing to non-existent sins just to get someone else to confess theirs.

Liberals want the system to work. Conservatives with a few exceptions like David Frum, want it to fail. That's the nihilism gap that the media dare not touch. Because if they did, they might actually approach a truth that reveals rather than obscures this national nightmare.

If the Democrats were actually going for "ideological purification, the Left would be a much stronger voice and there would be NO Blue Dogs and a great many more truly liberal progressive Democrats in both the House and the Senate. As it is, people who match that description are a minority in Congress and generally, in "thought" leaders outside of government.

More than 70 percent of Republicans in the electorate identify themselves as conservative or very conservative, while only 40 percent of rank-and-file Democrats call themselves liberal or very liberal.

I think this speaks more to the nature of what it means to be a conservative and what it means to be a liberal than anything. Conservatives are authoritarian followers who fear empathy and seek to both control and be controlled. They find self worth in belonging to a group of like-minded people. And they trick themselves into believing that being a member of a group that seeks to cling to the reigns of power somehow makes them "free."

Liberals, meanwhile, are so awash in empathy, looking out for everyone, etc., that their allegiance is constantly tested. No one is free until everyone is free. And because there is so much injustice in the world, one liberal wants DADT repealed while another wants more music programs in inner city schools while another wants an end to all wars while another wants boots on the ground in Dakar.

Conservatives hate change. It's in their name. Liberals want everything to change. The GOP was able to convince themselves that nothing changed in the Bush years. Liberals don't feel that anything has changed at all in the last 18 months.

Is Ron Wyden being punished for teaming up with Bennett? If not, that's another asymmetry.

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It is essential that the corporate media maintain the illusion that it is an observer rather than a player. Both sides do it is one of the tools the media hacks use to give the reader the impression that the writer is standing to the side observing instead of making side bets on the action.

If Harold Stassen were alive today, would he be getting Sunday bookings too? He stayed a lot more relevant for a longer period.

...polarization,...unrivaled in modern American history.
Huh,,,???
Has someone forgotten about Vietnam/Watergate/Kent State, or the Civil War?...or the Triangle Fire & the battles that followed???
...or the Depression, prohibition & the rise of ethnic & corporate Gangsterism.

Or maybe that's all a bunch Ancient American History.

Grumpy: no. The fact that Sen. Wyden worked with Republican Sen. Bennett is not hurting him, at least not significantly. Unlike Bennett, he'll have no problem being re-elected this fall.

chrenson, spot on yet again.

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Put simply: More than 70 percent of Republicans in the electorate identify themselves as conservative or very conservative, while only 40 percent of rank-and-file Democrats call themselves liberal or very liberal.

This may show that the American "center" is farther to "the right" than you would prefer it to be. Also, that the American "center" is farther to "the right" than the Democrats who gave us the health bill.

It's only one item of information, and "left", "center" and "right" lack absolute definitions.

@ assholespammer on May 16, 2010 at 3:49 PM

All spammers must die.

I have just learned my local Gannett paper will no longer devote a full opinion page to one issue unless it runs commentary taking "both sides."

I can't imagine any issue worthy of full page coverage for which there are only two sides.

I think we have to blame the media on this one.

So I guess we're deleting comments from people who you don't agree with now? I just posted something with no links, no spam, nothing but a few sentences about how the right is worse now, but the left will be worse when the right takes power back... it was up for a bit, now its gone.

I came back to post something about the SEIU actually starting a whole new party in North Carolina because their congressmen there didn't vote for the Healthcare bill... poof... gone.

Are you so stupid as to think that deleting comments that have nothing wrong with them will increase readership. Say goodbye to my traffic, and I'll stop linking to your site from moderate blogs I post to regularly.

Jerks.

I keep hoping that Republican incumbents will realize that the whole Party of No thing isn't doing them a lot of good. They are likely to suffer the same fate as Democratic incumbents.

Well, yeah, except that three quarters of those that are left represent districts or states as batshit crazy as they are. Do you really think Richard Shelby, Tom Coburn, or whoever the Utahns end up nominating are worried their seats are going to go Democratic?

Some Democrats may "cavort" with the disloyal opposition, but relatively more may occasionally "consort" with it. Otherwise, nice to see someone acknowledge the new nature of things, where braying Country Firsters place country last and block appointments of qualified candidates to fill even the most desperately vital positions.

chrenson on May 16, 2010 at 1:11 PM:

Although I agree with a lot of what you write, it's sort of funny that your post seems to fit the "Conservatives have this flaw... but liberals have this flaw..." paradigm.

Sort of along the same lines, and also in keeping with what walt at 1:03 PM wrote, I think the liberal/progressive mindset is one that values self-criticism and nuance, that eschews simplistic narratives of good and evil.

Ordinarily I think that's a very good thing, but it does make it harder to present a political narrative. Politics is about selling the notion that you're right and the other guy is wrong. It's OK to make that sale in a nuanced way -- the President is really stellar at doing that -- but for most people, and without a very sophisticated audience, it just comes off as lack of belief in one's rightness.

It's simple.

You either support off shore drilling or you don't.

I think democrats need to GO GREEN, fuck the Republicans.

Both sides do it is one of the tools the media hacks use to give the reader the impression that the writer is standing to the side observing instead of making side bets on the action.
Posted by: thebewilderness on May 16, 2010 at 1:46 PM

If they're trying to look like impartial observers, it ain't working. To me, it looks like their glasses need upgrading.

The polarization comes from one side is unreasonable to the point of insanity; and, the other side is reasonable.

The polarization is directly related to the popularity of Fox news. Bill O'Reilly teaches the correct way to argue is to "cut the mike" which is precisely the way "conservatives" argue today. This causes both sides to become more polarized.

Do you really think Richard Shelby, Tom Coburn, or whoever the Utahns end up nominating are worried their seats are going to go Democratic?

No, but do you think that Mitch McConnell counted on his handpicked boy in Kentucky losing to Rand Paul? The mood is anti-incumbent. Democrats have more incumbents so they will lose more, but as Senator Bennett just found out, being an incumbent in the Party of No is a bitch, even if you are a good soldier.

If Specter loses, the chances of the Democrats holding the Pennsylvania Senate seat are dramaticlly improved. The same if Lincoln loses. Don't give me the shit about Arkansas being a Republican state. The guy running against Lincoln won a state wide election.

The 'were 100% right and they're 100% wrong' meme is a tiresome one, from both sides, but particularly the left. Holding yourselves up as tolerant because 'we tolerate more dissent than the GOP does' isn't exactly 100% truth.

"More than 70 percent of Republicans in the electorate identify themselves as conservative or very conservative, while only 40 percent of rank-and-file Democrats call themselves liberal or very liberal."

The labels "conservative" and "liberal" are nebulous. They mean different things to different people, and the word "liberal" has picked up negative connotations lately. People with generally left-of-center views often self-identify as "progressive" rather than "liberal". A better way to handle that would be to ask people about their positions on a number of issues, and then see whether Republicans are more likely to take uniformly conservative positions than Democrats are to take uniformly liberal positions.

J, that is not the meme anyway. We are clearly talking about who is worse and you know or should know it.

There is no better or worse in the Dems vs GOP. They both stink, and they're both beholden to moneyed special interests.

The story here is this: There are 2 parties in Murica: Republican and Republican-lite. They both suck.

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