Relax? Never!

by tristero

I almost agree with much of what Michael Lind says here, but I certainly disagree with why. It’s not that the American people merely opposed Bushism, because, in fact, they didn’t. It’s that liberals found both the motivation and the rhetorical voice forcefully to confront the conservative movement. Liberals proactively articulated persuasive arguments that engaged the American people and made sense to them.

Nor is the battle against movement conservatives even half as optimistically over as Lind makes it sound. Take the fight against creationism, for example. A creationist bill has, according to sources in the fight, a very good chance of being signed into law by Jindal in Louisiana. Also, I am not at all certain, as Lind is, about the difficulty of rolling back Roe, especially if, God help us, McCain is elected in November.

So rather than saying “I almost agree” with Michael Lind, perhaps I should say that I’d very much like to. As for urging liberals to relax – which is not necessarily his headline but the one Salon assigned – it is the height of irresponsibility even to suggest such a thing. If the past 8 years have taught us nothing else, it’s that the price of liberalism and freedom is, to paraphrase a Supreme Court justice, eternal vigilance against the anti-American and virulent political right. If this country manages to avoid another George W. Bush, it will not be because the undefined “people,” by some vague process, decided to ignore rightwing propaganda, but because progressives made a vigorous and persuasive case to counteract that propaganda. Before they did, the movement conservatives were winning again and again. And wrecking this country as they did so.