Obama's Rise
in the Polls
STORIES FROM THE
FIVE CENTERS OF
POLITICAL GRAVITY
Clinton's DNC Speech
THE LEFT SPECTRUM
(descending order of
authentic "liberalism")
LIBERALISM
• Progressive Libs
• Religious Left
• Obama's impossible task
• Reviving
Kerry standing in for
Romney in Obama
debate prep
• Third Way (DLC)
• Paleolibs
• Blue Dogs
• Labor Libs
• Radical Left (largely gone)
Muslim Rage
Romney's
"47%" Speech
• David Brooks on the attack
and...
• David Frum
and...
• Peggy Noonan
But Rush says it's true.
THE RIGHT SPECTRUM
(descending order of
authentic "conservatism")
GOP's
Internecine War
GOP Critique of
Romney and Campaign
"Obama: 'You Didn't
Build That.'"
• Progressive Cons
• Mod Cons
• Paleo Cons
CONSERVATISM
• Neo Libs (actually conservatives)
• Neo Cons
• Tax Cons (anti-tax radicals)
• Theo Cons (religious right)
Reagan
Coalition
"Obama 2016"—
Dinesh D'Souza
PROGRESSIVISM
• Born in the 19th-century
Republican Party
• Essential goodness
of human nature
• Social and Economic Justice
• Racial equality
• Gender equity
• Economic fairness
• Universal Human Rights
• Ecological Sustainability
ARE THESE VALUES CLOSER
TO THE AMERICAN CORE?
Occupy Wall Street
• The continuing drama
"Part of the Way with
ObamA!" ???
Intelligent reaction to
"Muslim Rage"
KEY CRITICISMS OF OBAMA
FROM THE FARTHER LEFT
• His Wall-Street-centered financial
team
PROGRESSIVISM
• Deals with health-care and
insurance industries to secure
passage of Health Care Reform
[ACA (PPA)]
PROGRESSIVE
SENATORS
• Sherrod Brown (OH)
• Patrick Leahy (VT)
• Ben Cardin (MD)
• Carl Levin (MI)
• Sheldon Whitehouse
(RI)
• Debbie Stabenow (MI)
• Bernie Sanders (VT)
• Kirsten Gillibrand
(NY)
• Chuck Schumer (NY)
• Jack Reed (RI)
• Hawkish Afghanistan policy;
including focus on drone warfare
• Failure to close Guantanamo and
continuation of Bush-era violations
of civil liberties
a
LIBERTARIANISM
• Party was born in clash of Young
Americans for Freedom and Ayn
Rand "objectivists" (at the YAF
convention in Florida, 1963)
•
The Rise of Paul Ryan
• From Ayn Rand
to Thomas Aquinas?
Medicare Controversies
• Major influences: Ayn Rand,
Ludwig von Mises, Friedrich
Hayek, Milton Friedman, Murray
Rothbard
• Anti-statism, anti-collectivism
LIBERTARIANISM
• Anti-Government?
Government functions extremely
limited (e.g., to suppression of
violent crime)
• "Moochers"
• "Takers"
• "Statism"
• "Collectivism"
• Private sector can meet all
challenges
• Individual civil liberties trump
imagined "group rights"
The Return of
Ayn Rand
e
Ron Paul
"
Michelle Bachman's
Huma Abedin attack
GOP House of
Representatives: most
conservative political
group today?
THE TEA PARTY
• Getting Jefferson Right
The Tea Party's
(and Michele Bachmann's
favorite revisionist
American historian
THE TEA PARTY
• NOT a true "social movement":
lacking in coherent focus; an
amalgam of angers, rather than an
coalescence of causes
Discrediting
David Barton
• The Jefferson Lies
Identity Politics
and
Conspiracy Theory
• More "Astroturf" than
grassroots: strongly funded by
wealthy conservative, libertarian,
tax-con advocacy groups
• Strongly "anti-government," but
deeply protective of government
benefits enjoyed by members
("Keep your damn government
hands off my Medicare!")
• MAJOR ELEMENTS (often
contradictory)
• Aggressive US military attitude
• Strong anti-goverment,
libertarian bias
• Anti-tax
• Right-wing Christian
• Islamophobic
• Pro-life
• Homophobic
• Science denying (especially
evolution, climate change, stem cell
research)
• Deep hatred of Barack Obama
(widespread belief of "Muslim,"
"Socialist," "Kenyan" calumnies)
MOST INTERESTING SENATE RACES
MA: Warren (Prog Lib) v. Brown (Prog Con)
WI: Baldwin (Prog Lib) v. Thompson (Paleo Con)
CT: Murphy (Lib) v. McMahon (Tea)
VA: Kaine (Lib) v. Allen (Libertarian/Tea)
FL: Nelson (Lib) v. Mack (Con)
ND: Heidkamp (Blue Dog Dem) v. Berg (Tea)
IN: Donnelly (Blue Dog Dem) v. Mourdock (Tea)
OH: Brown (Prog Lib) v. Mandel (Con/Tea)
MT: Tester (Blue Dog Dem) v. Rehberg (Con/Libertarian)