[Politics]

The Dems' New Vision

Do the Dems have no vision, or do journalists just say they don't? And, in a more philosophical vein, how would you know the difference? EJ Dionne toys with this question today, and comes back to a hobby horse of mine: the question of equality versus liberty in American politics. The great liberal reforms of mid-century were made with an eye toward equality, which buoyed them politically as they remade America. The GOP shifted gears with Reagan and emphasized liberty--mainly one's liberty from oppressive taxes, never mind that this liberated you from your fancy liberal social safety net in the process. But Dems have nevertheless been cowed by all this talk of liberty, and so Dionne has a suggestion: co-opt it.

[I]t takes a government to fight identity theft, to give parents more power over the television programming that comes into their homes, to protect individuals from hidden credit card charges, to offer employees more control over the balance between their work and family lives. The list is not exhaustive, but it is instructive. It shows that government rules and regulations, properly conceived, can tilt the scales within a competitive economy toward individual rights. Citizens should have rights within the political sphere, but consumers and employees should also have rights in the economic sphere.

He's right, of course, but I don't know that we'll hear this argument from Dems--at least not untile they find their courage. Because liberty are important--critically important. But the Dems aren't the party of liberty, they're the party of justice and equality. If they can't find the stomach to make that point, it hardly seems likely that they will courageously argue for regulation, of all things. That takes a far more confident sense of political philosophy than anyone in the Democratic camp has made for decades.

Still, nice to hear someone make the point.