WP, E.J. DIONNE: "THE LEFT" MOVES FRONT AND CENTER

[DeepModem Mom]

'The Left' Moves Front and Center
By E. J. Dionne Jr.
Friday, June 22, 2007

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. -- Why can't the left get any respect?

Whenever you use the word "left" in American politics, you feel almost compelled to add quotation marks. Today's left is not talking about nationalizing industry, abolishing capitalism or destroying the rich. What passes for "left" in American politics is quite moderate by historical standards.

Still, cliches die hard, so you hear such 20-year-old questions as: "Are Democrats moving too far to the left?" or "Will Democrats abandon the center?"

This approach is about abstractions, not concrete political problems, and it misses the dynamic in American public life, which is the move away from the right and a discrediting of the conservative era. The political "center" of today is not where the "center" was even five years ago....

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...A large majority of the country has now decided that the establishment was wrong to support the war, and that those who opposed it -- including the left -- were right.

It's like that on a lot of issues. Just a few years ago, the prevailing view held that national action for universal health insurance coverage was politically impossible. Now, pressure for comprehensive health-care reform is broad and deep, arising from major businesses as well as traditional liberal bastions. When two leading Republicans, former governor Mitt Romney of Massachusetts and Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger of California, decide to embrace comprehensive health insurance coverage for their own states, it's clear the winds are changing.

Economic populism is no longer marginal or antique. Frustration over growing economic inequalities, excessive compensation for executives, the privileged role of hedge funds and the disruptions caused by globalization are mainstream concerns....(T)he "good ideas" that voters are demanding mostly have to do with problems that have been framed by the left, not the right: the need to disengage from Iraq, to create health security, to ease economic inequalities. It's time to update our sense of where the political center lies and to adjust our view of "the left" accordingly.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/06/21/AR2007062101860.html?nav=most_emailed