‘Cause he’s dead!

According to the head of the Democratic National Committee, “The only good Republican is a dead one.” or something like that.

Obama admires Reagan, but I certainly hope it doesn’t go any farther than that!

Unfortunately, Obama has hinted that he agrees with some of Reagan’s critique of liberal “excesses” of the 60’s and 70’s. That’s fine as a civic piety for a conservative electorate, a political gesture that’s itself Reaganesque, but it’s politically incorrect and nothing that can help him achieve any historical purposes.

Wilentz’s devotion to democracy is inspiring and instructive and so forth, but he tends to underplay the dark side, and doesn’t tell Newsweek that Reagan tapped into greed and fear and tribalism — powerful forces. Reagan was a kind of “market correction” or pause during which the Willentz’ parade of democracy marched sideways while awaiting a drum major in the mold of Jackson and FDR. But Reagan was worse — he unleashed powerful forces that are coming back to hurt us.

As a card-carrying one myself, I must say, that the question of optimism/pessimism can be found on both sides. The actual question is about the ability of government to do good, and more broadly the perfectibility of human nature. Both of these items are commonly found among liberals. Not surprisingly, conservatives take a different view (we’ll not use the dread “p” word, spare the Llama’s ears): the doubt in government’s ability to act is a stalwart theme for conservatives. And it’s not like they think highly of human action either.

Now this is all generalization, mind you. There are conservative exceptions. The most notable recent exceptions would be the cake-walk and roses school of the Iraq war supporters. As the ensuing years have revealed, a little more pessimism might have been a good thing.

I think he meant exactly what he said. Just because one rightly recognizes the fallen nature of man, that doesn’t mean that one cannot (or should not) be happy–particularly when one understands that God is redeeming His creation.

“Of course, one can believe in a fallen human nature and be perennially happy. In fact, one can only be truly happy if one understands the true character of creation, but only if one also understands that all this can be redeemed.”

Didn’t you mean to say that you cannot believe in a fallen human nature and be perennially happy?

Pessimism has always been a strand of conservatism.

What a crock. Pessimism, shared poverty in all things and universal misery are the hallmarks of Socialism and the core of being a liberal and a Dmocrat.