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Politics : View from the Center and Left -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: koan who wrote (480607)	10/3/2021 5:28:02 PM
From: JohnM	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 540882

First, Gore hated Clinton and many think the reason he lost was because he refused to let Clinton campaign for him. I think Gore matured and would put him in the progressive wing. His idea on global warming was right on. Disagree. Gore was furious at Clinton over the Lewinsky stuff. Had nothing to do with policy matters. As for the global warming, as I said before, I completely agree. But I don't know of any other matters they fundamentally disagreed on such that Gore would be considered a progressive. And, to mention the one data point that leaps to mind, once again, Clinton, in choosing him for the vp spot, considered him a soulmate. Remember in the 60's there was a clear dividing line between the progressives and the moderate Democrats. The progressives were solidly against the Viet Nam war and the counter culture as one would expect, while the moderates were for the Viet Nam and against the counter culture. Actually, I don't remember it that way. You must put LBJ on both sides of that line--great society legislation was miraculous. But the Vietnam War was his downfall. Can't wait to read Robert Caro on this period. As for opposition to the Vietnam War being the big dividing line, the best counter illustration that pops to mind is Paul Douglas, senator, very liberal senator, from Illinois. Big supporter of the Vietnam War. I met him in a cafeteria in Skokie, Illinois during his 1968 reelection campaign. Had to tell him I was voting for Chuck Percy, the Republican, because of Percy's support for ending the war. Only time I ever voted for a Republican for national office. Saying you think Humphrey would have ended the Viet Nam war seems a stretch. He ran on supporting that war. If so, was he lying? Actually, sort of. In the way all politicians do. Humphrey knew he would never get LBJ's backing if he opposed the war but everything I've read (again, can't wait for Caro on this one) suggests, strongly, his heart was not in it. He had to have LBJs backing for the nomination and to get elected. But living through it, I recall, fairly vividly, that if you were opposed to the war, Humphrey was your guy. Definitely not Nixon. And Humphrey's social policies were very liberal. The moderates have been using their power of seniority to shut out the progressives right up to a week ago when the progressives true strength forced Pelosi to back down for the first time. Way too overgeneralized. Pelosi, for instance, wanted a much stronger health care reform than Obamacare. But when it was all that was available, she saved it. Deserves enormous credit from everyone for that. There is a logical reason the vast majority of scientists and college professors are liberal and it is not because they are stupid. Here is a 1975 poll and I am sure it is much greater now! Just not true. The polls I've seen contrast conservative/liberal. In my own experience, given what I think I know about the contents of your contrast, the vast majority of college professors would be considered moderate Dems. Would love to see some serious data on this. But I've never seen the cuts like this. "Publishing their results in the 1975 book The Divided Academy, Ladd and Lipset found that about 46% of professors described themselves as liberal, 27% described themselves as moderates, and 28% described themselves as conservative." Would love to see the source for that quote. Lipset was notoriously fairly conservative. Don't recall who Ladd was. But would like both to see the source but perhaps the source would reveal the way the questions were worded. And where the data was gathered. And so on. As I said, runs counter to my experience. Strongly so. But even in that poll over half of the professoriate was not liberal. Which puts a question mark after this assertion: The best and brightest in this country are progressives, not moderates.