A Weblog of Centrist Voices in American Politics
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A Weblog of Centrist Voices in American Politics | |
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January 24, 2004Demagoguery Addiction Theory Being TestedHere's where my Dean demagoguery addiction theory gets tested. This, right now, is the point where he has to turn centerwards, as far left and extreme anti-Bush turnout has not been enough to put him over the top. He's not dumb - he knows this. The test of my theory is whether he sticks to disciplined centrism in the next week. The whole bit with the scream is deeply symbolic of his problem.... One thing has happened that that suggests I'm right and he's, um, left. Even though he's trying to stay calm, and is stating policy rather than demagoguing, he isn't staking out centrist positions. He's kept the decidedly pro-regulation direction in which he has moved, decidedly away from the pro-globalisation spot that he enunciated at Cato back at the start of his campaign. That suggests that he's really moved well left, as my piece described , and isn't about to just resume centrist positions after a period of deliberate catering to the left. Comments
I discussed Dean's demagoguery in this post. I think the difficulty Dean is having from the so-called "I Have A Scream" speech is not just the final growl, but the earlier part of the speech, the stemwinder, which went beyond the inspirational to the level of let's grab the torches and march on Dr. Frankenstein's castle. Scary stuff. Posted by: rickheller at January 24, 2004 11:41 PM |
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