A Turn to the Left
Washington Post
Sen. John Edwards and the other Democratic contenders have embraced increasingly liberal positions in the race for the White House.
Former senator John Edwards this morning plans to announce new economic proposals intended to close what he considers corporate loopholes and raise taxes on what he considers the wealthy to finance initiatives to help poor and middle class Americans. All of which raises an interesting question: Is the political dialogue in America moving back to the left after nearly three decades defined to some extent by the ideas of Ronald Reagan, Newt Gingrich and George W. Bush?
Edwards has made raising taxes on the rich a staple of his poverty-themed campaign, disregarding the lessons of Walter F. Mondale, who found that promises to increase taxes didn't win lots of votes. But Edwards is not the only one. Some positions embraced by the Democratic field would have seemed politically too hot to touch not that long ago. All of the leading contenders have vowed to allow gays to serve openly in the military and join in civil unions if not formal marriage. All of them to one degree or another are talking about universal health care, a lightning rod since the Clinton plan collapsed more than a dozen years ago. All of them are competing to be the most antiwar.
And look what happened the other night at the Democratic debate in Charleston, S.C. -- Edwards and Sens. Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama all said almost in passing that they would require women to register for the draft at age 18 just as men do today. Not that any of them was endorsing a draft, yet just the notion of registering women for Selective Service once would have been considered radical but this week went all but unnoticed.
Of course, Democrats often run to the left in presidential primaries and later pay the price in general elections. Democratic candidates talked about repealing the Bush tax cuts during the 2004 campaign. Republican strategists are carefully keeping tabs on every liberal idea advanced in these early days and some of them no doubt may not look so politically wise come the television advertising blitzes in fall 2008. But what makes this year's dialogue interesting is that even the Republican field leans more to the left than the typical GOP primary field.
The leader, after all, is former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani, who supports abortion rights, gay rights and gun control, even if he is contorting to explain those positions to a conservative audience. The last Republican presidential nominee to support abortion rights was Gerald R. Ford, and he nearly lost the 1976 nomination to conservative rival Ronald Reagan. Giuliani's presumed rival, former senator Fred Thompson, reportedly lobbied for an abortion rights group. Former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney used to be for abortion rights until recently. On other issues too, the ground seems to have shifted. Sen. John McCain is sponsoring a plan to curb climate change. Romney pushed through a universal health care plan in Massachusetts that drew Sen. Ted Kennedy to the signing ceremony. Other Republican governors, from Arnold Schwarzenegger in California to Charlie Crist in Florida, are pushing their own environmental or health plans straight out of liberal playbooks.
(Continued here.)
Sen. John Edwards and the other Democratic contenders have embraced increasingly liberal positions in the race for the White House.
Former senator John Edwards this morning plans to announce new economic proposals intended to close what he considers corporate loopholes and raise taxes on what he considers the wealthy to finance initiatives to help poor and middle class Americans. All of which raises an interesting question: Is the political dialogue in America moving back to the left after nearly three decades defined to some extent by the ideas of Ronald Reagan, Newt Gingrich and George W. Bush?
Edwards has made raising taxes on the rich a staple of his poverty-themed campaign, disregarding the lessons of Walter F. Mondale, who found that promises to increase taxes didn't win lots of votes. But Edwards is not the only one. Some positions embraced by the Democratic field would have seemed politically too hot to touch not that long ago. All of the leading contenders have vowed to allow gays to serve openly in the military and join in civil unions if not formal marriage. All of them to one degree or another are talking about universal health care, a lightning rod since the Clinton plan collapsed more than a dozen years ago. All of them are competing to be the most antiwar.
And look what happened the other night at the Democratic debate in Charleston, S.C. -- Edwards and Sens. Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama all said almost in passing that they would require women to register for the draft at age 18 just as men do today. Not that any of them was endorsing a draft, yet just the notion of registering women for Selective Service once would have been considered radical but this week went all but unnoticed.
Of course, Democrats often run to the left in presidential primaries and later pay the price in general elections. Democratic candidates talked about repealing the Bush tax cuts during the 2004 campaign. Republican strategists are carefully keeping tabs on every liberal idea advanced in these early days and some of them no doubt may not look so politically wise come the television advertising blitzes in fall 2008. But what makes this year's dialogue interesting is that even the Republican field leans more to the left than the typical GOP primary field.
The leader, after all, is former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani, who supports abortion rights, gay rights and gun control, even if he is contorting to explain those positions to a conservative audience. The last Republican presidential nominee to support abortion rights was Gerald R. Ford, and he nearly lost the 1976 nomination to conservative rival Ronald Reagan. Giuliani's presumed rival, former senator Fred Thompson, reportedly lobbied for an abortion rights group. Former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney used to be for abortion rights until recently. On other issues too, the ground seems to have shifted. Sen. John McCain is sponsoring a plan to curb climate change. Romney pushed through a universal health care plan in Massachusetts that drew Sen. Ted Kennedy to the signing ceremony. Other Republican governors, from Arnold Schwarzenegger in California to Charlie Crist in Florida, are pushing their own environmental or health plans straight out of liberal playbooks.
(Continued here.)
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