Reply #11: I really don't think that would be wise [View All]

[Douglas Carpenter]

Let us take a look at how the right-wing gradually took over the GOP.
It's hard to imagine now, but there was a time when there were liberal Republicans who actually took the lead on issues like civil rights, fighting poverty and even opposition to the Viet Nam war. Committed right-wingers like Bill Buckley actually speculated out loud about running Reagan as a third party candidate. But through maneuvering and organizing the right-wing gained control and won the ideological debate within the party. The liberals were not purged per se--the reactionary forces just gradually became dominant. By the mid to late 70's the liberals of the Republican Party were no longer a factor. The Reagan party solidified the Republican Party as a right-wing party. This was further solidified in the early 90's with the rise of the Gingrich congress.
It may take some time. But I think it wiser for progressives to learn from the right-wing on how to make the Democratic Party a genuinely progressive party.

I might suggest reading "Before the Storm: Barry Goldwater and the Unmaking of the American Consensus" by Rick Perlstein. Rick Perlstein is the chief political writer for the Village Voice and is obviously on the left. I think this book gives some real insight to the rise to dominance of the right and begs the question, "what can we learn from them?".