Kevin Sullivan

Amusing

Posted by Kevin Sullivan under Uncategorized

I always find it amusing when Matt Stoller takes it upon himself to talk about true Liberalism, or Progressivism, or whatever the heck anti-democratic activist hacks such as him go by these days. 

In his latest installment, Matt blah blah blahs all over the pages of FireDogLake about some book Eric Alterman wrote.  I like Alterman–he strikes me as a pretty reasonable guy, and his comic strips make me laugh.  Matt Stoller tends to make me laugh as well, but for entirely different reasons.  Take this doozy for example:

Now, I have fought with traditional top-down liberals a lot. And I believe in fighting and argument, and I don’t always think the liberal groups deal in good faith. But it rubbed me the wrong way that an argument for a strong independent movement, once that operates to influence both parties, is considered a mark of ideological purity. The right-wing has been successful by taking over the Republican Party, but also by influencing the Democratic Party through politicians like Joe Lieberman and through funding networks like the DLC and the Koch brothers. They own the GOP, and about a fifth to a third of the Democratic Party depending on the issue. I don’t see how that can be considered anything but an independent and strong conservative movement, and while I don’t agree with their value system, I don’t understand why we shouldn’t recognize this as a remarkable organizing success and something to replicate.

So if conservatives own the GOP, and if they own a healthy chunk of the Democratic Party, why hasn’t the welfare state been dismantled?  Why is the size of government only growing?  Why did George W. Bush–with a Republican Congress, and apparently at least 1/5 of the Democratic Party in his pocket–fail to pass social security murder reform through the Hill?  I’m sure Stoller would equate war and tax breaks with conservatism, but that would be stupid.  So yeah, he probably does believe that.  The problem with that theory is that Liberals started a whole bunch of wars throughout the 20th Century, and even cut taxes.  Democrats have wavered on matters of trade since the party’s inception.  The problem is that Stoller confuses genuine Liberalism for all the stuff Matt Stoller thinks is right.  Thus, conservatism is basically the stuff he doesn’t think to be right.

Throw in the usual references to Joe Lieberman, get a DLC mention in there, and something about the ”right-wing noise machine,” and you have the usual inanity that is Matt Stoller.  I won’t go any further, but feel free to catch up on my previous love letters to Matt.