There is something phony and elitist about the argument David Ignatius makes in this column (building on his reading of “The Way to Win” by Mark Halperin of ABC News and John F. Harris of The Washingotn Post. They posit a vision of America that pits centrist and civil pragmatists against the flamethrowers at the edge, placing the old-guard media like the major papers and the network news programs on the side of civility and reason.
Centrists like Bill Clinton, the argument goes, are only interested in solutions and not in ideology. This is the correct stance, Ignatius implies. The flamethrowers, which include the blogosphere, cable news and team Bush, are ideaologues and divisive and dangerous to our democracy.
The flaw in the argument is that ideology does matter. Political philosophy guides how we react to events and how we hope to make the world better. I come from a left-liberal perspective and believe that government can work to make things better, am distrustful of corporate power and large concentrations of power more generally. I would support public control of electric utilities, for instance, and a functioning social safety net. My solutions to the nation’s — and the world’s — problems come from that basic mindset.
A conservative would approach things with a far different attitude. He or she likely believes that the public schools can be fixed only by dismantling them and opening them to market forces. Same goes for electric rates or gas prices.
Democracy demands a dialogue between these different philosophies, with the folks we elect finding a way to reach some kind of consensus without sacrificing their core beliefs or the core beliefs of their constituents.
The problem with the pragmatists described by Ignatius is that they do not appear to have core beliefs and so are willing to sacrifice it all. That was Bill Clinton’s problem — remember triangulation? — and it is why, though Democrats and liberals are unwilling to admit this, his presidency was a failure.
And it is why national Democrats continue to have trouble winning voters back to their cause.
South Brunswick Post, The Cranbury Press
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Hank Kalet 