Politics
Julie has been on fire this week and her highlighting and mocking of Harold Meyerson's reactionary and romantic statism is especially needed. Meyerson's column reminded me of Sidney Blumenthal's description of Walter Mondale's liberalism, "Its credo: anything that has been superseded has proved its worth. If it's gone, it's good. Nothing can be tried that hasn't already failed. The future is the endless rehearsal of the past." Meyerson looks at Ryan's plan to deal with our current and projected financial problems and sees a threat to the past. For Meyerson, the future happened between 1933 and 1966. We must ever live there regardless of changing demographics and economic conditions.
This is a secular faith-based worldview. Any new policies (like defined contribution Medicare and block granted Medicaid) are the past, even if those policies have never been implemented before. Meyerson's is a nostalgic progressivism where the future happened generations ago and anything new must be a return to the past.
There is something deliciously ironic in this, Pete, isn't there? (And thank you!)
I love your line: "For Meyerson, the future happened between 1933 and 1966." That is beautifully said. Who wants to drag whom back to whose past and when? And who's on first? This is what happens when you try to have a conversation with people who refuse to speak in terms of good v. bad (or, dare I say, God?) and, instead, want to talk about history as it were a supernatural force. It's ironic that "history" seems now to have passed them up. But this focus and this "faith-based" obsession of theirs (another great line!) is also creepy. Science fiction creepy.