Joe Klein on how the angry partnership between Dean and Gore is remaking the Democrats. Klein puts his finger on the basis of the Dean-Gore alliance when he observes that “the two have so much in common; they’re the angriest guys in the Democratic Party.” He also shrewdly recognizes that Dean’s anger is “tactical, not visceral.” And Klein is on the money when he says: “Gore 6.0 seems more radical than previous models, with a passion upgrade from the glitches in 5.0 (clumsy populist presidential candidate), 4.0 (clumsy earth-toned presidential candidate), 3.0 (loyal Vice President) and 2.0 (militant New Democratic candidate for President in 1988).”
However, the main insight of Klein’s piece comes towards the end when he points out that “Democratic factions tend to be sedimentary.” The old-time blue-collar economic populists (represented today by Gephardt) were supplanted by radical-liberal activists, who in turn were pushed aside by the “new” Clinton-style Democrats. Now comes the latest faction (Klein calls them the “new-news”) led by Dean. Clearly, as Klein acknowledges, they most resemble the radical-liberals, who, of course, fared the worst of the factions when they encountered the electorate. Klein tries to avoid the obvious conclusion by claiming that the “new-news” have borrowed elements from other factions and have developed a style all their own. But, by the end of the piece, not even Klein seems persuaded.
-
-
Most Read on Power Line
Donate to PL
-
Our Favorites
- American Greatness
- American Mind
- American Story
- American Thinker
- Aspen beat
- Babylon Bee
- Belmont Club
- Churchill Project
- Claremont Institute
- Daily Torch
- Federalist
- Gatestone Institute
- Hollywood in Toto
- Hoover Institution
- Hot Air
- Hugh Hewitt
- InstaPundit
- Jewish World Review
- Law & Liberty
- Legal Insurrection
- Liberty Daily
- Lileks
- Lucianne
- Michael Ramirez Cartoons
- Michelle Malkin
- Pipeline
- RealClearPolitics
- Ricochet
- Steyn Online
- Tim Blair
Media
Subscribe to Power Line by Email
Temporarily disabled
Notice: All comments are subject to moderation. Our comments are intended to be a forum for civil discourse bearing on the subject under discussion. Commenters who stray beyond the bounds of civility or employ what we deem gratuitous vulgarity in a comment — including, but not limited to, “s***,” “f***,” “a*******,” or one of their many variants — will be banned without further notice in the sole discretion of the site moderator.