The Party of Jackson, 1828-2008

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Thursday May 01, 2008 · 10:09 PM PDT

2008/05/01 · 22:09

The Democratic party has been blessed with a number of leaders who both radically shifted the direction of the country and defined the party around central ideas - strong governmental action on behalf of the common man, and a government that fights for opportunity for all rather than to preserve the privilege of a few. When most people think of the central historical Democrat, Franklin Roosevelt is probably the first to come to mind. The transition from the Republican depression to the New Deal was so dramatic, transformative, and popular that the conservative party had no hope of reversing the major changes that they had opposed along the way.

But Roosevelt was not the beginning of the modern Democratic Party. The beginning of the modern Democratic Party was Andrew Jackson.

Snapper

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Monday March 05, 2007 · 10:26 PM PST

2007/03/05 · 22:26

I remember reading about this speech and the more conciliatory tone it took toward the Soviet Union but I'd never actually read the speech itself. Here's a link -

http://americanrhetoric.com/...

Comparing the rhetoric of today's politicans to those of the past is sort of eerie. In our current case, the past is both an inspiration of what the United States can be and a depressing indicator of how far we've fallen.

As I understand Kennedy's administration, Kennedy felt like he looked very weak when he met with Khrushchev in 1961 and felt like he had to prove his strength, which partiallly contributed to the Cuban Missile Crisis. This speech in 1963 was supposed to be a new, confident Kennedy, strong enough to make peace and reconciliation the centerpiece of the address. It was delivered a little more than 5 months before he was assassinated.

Some choice quotes below the fold.

Snapper

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Saturday July 29, 2006 · 5:54 PM PDT

2006/07/29 · 17:54

McNaughton was not so sure. "The trouble with you, Forrestal," he once said, "is that you always think we can turn this thing off, and that we can get off of it whenever we want. But I wonder. I think if it was easy to get off of it, we would already have gotten off. I think it gets harder every day, each day we lose a little control, each decision that we make wrong, or don't make at all, makes the next decision a little harder because if we haven't stopped it today, then the reasons for not stopping it will still exist tomorrow, and we'll be in even deeper." Even as he spoke, Forrestal felt chilled, for McNaughton was not just challenging what was going on in Vietnam, there were lots of people in Washington who were doing that, what he was challenging was even more basic: the illusion of control, the illusion of options, the belief that whenever Washington really wanted to, it could pull itself together and handle Vietnam. He was challenging, then, not just the shabbiness and messiness of Vietnam, but the most sacred illusion of all, the capacity of Washington to control and manage foreign events. (368) (spring 1964) Read More

To beat the right, we need to become them - rhetorically

Snapper

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Tuesday December 14, 2004 · 2:45 PM PST

2004/12/14 · 14:45

One of the arguments Noam Scheiber used to make in favor of Howard Dean was that because Dean was committed to the liberal base only rhetorically he had room to move substantively to the center in the general election campaign and thus would be a strong candidate. Of course, in retrospect, this misses a huge distinction - on balance, it is the LEFT that cares about SUBSTANCE and the RIGHT that cares about RHETORIC. Hence, "reality based community". Read More

The Charge of the Iraq Brigade

Snapper

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Friday October 22, 2004 · 7:09 PM PDT

2004/10/22 · 19:09

With appreciation to Alfred Lord Tennyson

--
Half a week, half a month,
Half a year longer
All in the valley of Death
Sat many hundred.
"Hold, Iraq Brigade!
"Stay the course!" he said:
Throughout the valley of Death
Sat many hundred.

"Disband the Baathists, aide!"
Was there a man dismay'd?
Not tho' the soldier knew
Rumsfeld had blunder'd:
Their's not to make reply,
Their's not to reason why,
Their's but to do and die:
Throughout the valley of Death
Sat many hundred. Read More

All Dean needs to say to win the general election

Snapper

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Thursday December 04, 2003 · 5:19 PM PST

2003/12/04 · 17:19

The Democrats are going to lose unless they manage to co-opt the Bush doctrine of pre-emption. The need for pre-emption is something that everyone knows in their gut. Being opposed to pre-emption means always waiting until our citizens are dead before doing anything about it. Dean knows this. "Confederate Flag" voters know this. Unfortunately, CF voters don't know Dean knows this. They look at dean and dean's supporters and see people like whoever was quoted in some article I read recently saying "I believe pre-emptive war is fundamentally immoral" - and this rightfully scares them. This is what Dean needs to say to win the general election: Read More

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The Party of Jackson, 1828-2008

Reading JFK at American University

Excerpts from The Best and the Brightest

To beat the right, we need to become them - rhetorically

The Charge of the Iraq Brigade

All Dean needs to say to win the general election