It Is Always A Disappointment To Turn

[the Right] May Never Bring Prayer Back To Schools, But It Has Rescued All Manner Of Rightwing Economic Nostrums From History's Dustbins. Having Rolled Back The Landmark Economic Reforms Of The Sixties (the War On Poverty) And Those Of The Thirties (labor Law, Agricultural Price Supports, Banking Regulation), Its Leaders Now Turn Their Guns On The Accomplishments Of The Earliest Years Of Progressivism (woodrow Wilson's Estate Tax; Theodore Roosevelt's Anti-trust Measures). With A Little More Effort, The Backlash May Well Repeal The Entire Twentieth Century.

There Is Much To Dislike About President Obama's Approach To The Financial Crisis. But Opposition, It Seems, Will Have To Come From Somewhere Other Than Conservatism. The Party Out Of Power Is Also A Party Out Of Touch.

Every City Is Either Vibrant These Days Or Is Working On A Plan To Attain Vibrancy Soon. The Reason Is Simple: A City Isn't Successful - Isn't Even A City, Really - Unless It Can Lay Claim To Being 'vibrant.'

When Done Right - Or Wrong, Depending On How You Look At It - Deficits Remove Liberal Options From The Table. Suddenly There's No Money For Building Bridges Or Inspecting Meat. Not Surprisingly, Running Up A Deficit Is A Strategy Favored By The Wrecking Crew For Its Liberal-killing Properties.

The Great Goal Of The Backlash Is To Nurture A Cultural Class War, And The First Step In Doing So, As We Have Seen, Is To Deny The Economic Basis Of Social Class. After All, You Can Hardly Deride Liberals As Society's "elite" Or Present The Gop As The Party Of The Common Man If You Acknowledge The Existence Of The Corporate World - The Power That Creates The Nation's Real Elite, That Dominates Its Real Class System, And That Wields The Republican Party As Its Personal Political Sidearm.