The days of guns and butter are over! There simply is no market for the Democrats to be the war
party anymore - or the surveillance party for that matter.
Yes I realize that historically speaking - the Democratic Party was THE party during World War I and World War II and it was essentially the party that established the cold war with the Soviet Union. It was the party that led the U.S. into Korea and massively escalated the war in Vietnam. It was the party of the Bay of Pigs and the party of the Cuban Missile crisis and the party of numerous adventures in Latin America and elsewhere.
From the bombing of Pearl Harbor until the Tet Offensive in 1968 - opposing American foreign policy was simply outside the mainstream of common debate and existed only on the fringes of the Democratic Party. AS the Vietnam War widened under Nixon into a broader Indochina War- and with no longer a Democratic Administration needing a loyal Democratic cadre and Congress to shield them from criticism and along with the revelations of Watergate - the popular grassroots level of the Democratic Party ceased being the party of war and the party of surveillance defenders and apologist.
I suppose in the in the Aftermath of September 11, 2001 - a state of political paralysis and confusion confounded the Democratic Party and made it difficult for it political leaders to be highly critical of either military action or surveillance activities. The fear of being labeled as "soft on terrorism" led many Democrats from boldly defying the beating of the war drums or raise questions about intrusions into civil liberties in the post September 11 atmosphere.
We can thank the utter ineptitude of the Bush/Cheney team for making the nation war weary and highly skeptical of foreign military adventuresome. Now we see the isolationist wing of the Republican Party growing in strength from a tiny fringe to a significant presence.
There simply are not enough people out there who are socially liberal and economically progressive who also war hawks and surveillance state apologist. Most war hawks and surveillance state apologist are going to vote Republican anyway. As we see clearly now they are not going to the Democrats a break just because they drop some bombs and send some missiles to attack some annoying enemy somewhere in the world. They didn't give Clinton that break and they sure the hell are not giving Obama that break either.
The only hope the Democratic Party has in continuing to win the young and to appeal to America's shifting demographics and to build a solid and long term Democratic majority is for the Democratic Party to establish itself clearly and unambiguously as the party that makes America socially just at home and at peace with he world. - the party that keep us out of wars and protects our privacy and civil liberties.
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