Paul Waldman of David Brock’s “progressive” Media Matters for America disputes the conventional wisdom that Americans are more conservative than liberal. The problem, he says, is with the way moderate voters talk to pollsters and self-identify as conservatives, when golly gee, they’re really progressives. Bad pollsters!
By defining moderate voters into the progressive camp, Waldman argues that his party’s tack to center is unnecessary. From there, we can make the next leap, which is that the key to defining yourself to victory is ditching a certain seven-letter word:
As part of a solution, many on the left have decided to start with a clean slate, ditching "liberal" in favor of "progressive." As a strategic move, this has much to commend it. Recent American political history has made it hard to argue that the root of "liberal" – liberty – belongs more to the left than to the right. In contrast, liberals can legitimately claim that they and not conservatives are the advocates of progress. They can argue that with their desire to conserve, conservatives are stuck in the past, while progressives want to achieve social and economic progress. Any number of different issues can be understood through this prism.
Reasonable people can disagree about whether shaking off a label is a strategic move, but you leave reasonable altogether when you argue that ditching “liberal” provides a “clean slate.” How’s that clean slate working out for your boss, Mr. Waldman?
