Welcome Back Reagan Democrats

by digby

Good for Jim Webb. He denied the idea that he’d become a Democrat purely on the basis of Iraq. He explained that he’d originally become a Republican on national security issues but that like a lot of people who’d done the same thing, he’d always been concerned with matters of economic fairness and social justice. He feels very comfortable in the new progressive Democratic majority.

People of sense are beginning to see that liberal-hating, low taxes, guns and Jesus aren’t enough to sustain the country they want to live in — and that for all the Republican chest thumping about national security they are no more capable or serious than a bunch of kids playing RISK.

And it isn’t just national security, is it?

After 9/11 and the war in Afghanistan, the budget deficit was growing. So at a meeting with the vice president after the mid-term elections in 2002, Suskind writes that O’Neill argued against a second round of tax cuts.

“Cheney, at this moment, shows his hand,” says Suskind. “He says, ‘You know, Paul, Reagan proved that deficits don’t matter. We won the mid-term elections, this is our due.'”

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