Liberals, Progressives, Libertarians, and "Conservatives"

We are in the beginning stages of a once-in-a-generation political realignment. The "conservative" movement and its paradigms are dying, and the question now is what is to replace them.

Classical political theory holds that Americans are divided into remarkably stable blocs; there are about 25% conservatives, 20% liberals, and the rest float somewhere in the middle; libertarians, those odd people, may make up perhaps 10%.

So what happened?

The simple fact is that the "conservative" movement needs to call itself something else, because it's not conservative, end of story. What that movement is is christian-dominionist and corporatist, in love with the big government they think should be used as a tool to inflict their Weltanschauung on everyone else, at the same time as it removes any barrier standing between your wallet and the appetite of giant corporations. That's the essence of the new "conservatism". It's no longer about smaller government, but about Terri Schiavo, no longer about a strong defense, but about no-bid contracts, no longer about freedom, but about repression and control.

Hence, we have "bankruptcy reform" which puts you in the position of never being able to escape your debt, while corporations with more than a million dollars in revenue can file under the old rules that let them walk away from their debt; "tort reform", which helps insurance companies at your expense, but hasn't lowered malpratice rates for doctors anywhere it's been implemented; "tax cuts", of which you get a dribble, while the new leisure class gets real money, and communist China makes up the difference; an "energy policy" which has created $10 billion in quarterly profits at Exxon while you bleed at the pump; a "war on terror" which manifests itself chiefly in that there is an unrelated war going on in Iraq and the government gets to spy on you; and constitutional amendments to ban all sorts of behavior the dominionists want rooted out so that Jesus can come back - including, now, flag-burning.

Kos has a diary on the effect this is having on libertarians, here. Independents can now safely be called Democrats as well. The vital center of American politics is now firmly outside of the right, and they know it. On the issues that matter - energy, security, competitiveness, jobs, healthcare, education, science, and freedom - the people who brought you "ANWR is the only answer", the Iraq war, the slashing of Pell grants, outsourcing and in-sourcing (a.k.a. illegal immigration), "tort reform", No Child Left Behind, the stem-cell research ban, and the Patriot Act along with domestic spying, have no answers.

What's next is already showing up in the Mountain West, in places like Montana and Colorado, and in the East, with men like Spitzer and Lamont. You're seeing a new vigorous Progressive movement springing up in the most unlikely places - try Kansas and South Dakota.

Our approach is simple: government shouldn't be working against you, it should be working for you. The government shouldn't be running up a tab with China on your credit card. We believe that the saying "Never has so much been done by so many for so few who need it so little" is a moral indictment. We believe that the money the government extracts from you should be better spent than on subsidies to the well-connected Enrons and Exxons of the world. We believe that our government is accountable to us. We believe that morality is not what other people do in bed, but what all of us do in public. We believe that there is such a thing as the public interest in our commonwealth. We no longer want to be ruled by the fat, corrupt, self-satisfied and self-interested elite breeding like maggots in the bowels of the American Enterprise Institute, the Federalist Society and the Heritage Foundation.

And above all, we know that we speak for a majority of Americans, and that the old order is dying.

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