The Case for Liberalism in an Age of Extremism by Alan Dershowitz

Author:Alan Dershowitz
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781510762992
Publisher: Hot Books
Published: 2020-05-21T16:00:00+00:00

“Had Sanders won the nomination, he would likely have been demolished in the general election, as were Michael Dukakis, George McGovern and Walter Mondale who represented the left wing of the Party, but were much closer to the center than he is. Sanders hard-left repressive followers would have been marginalized; as well they should be, because the Democrats can only win as centrist liberals, rather than hard-left radicals. But with Sanders losing the nomination, his power and that of his supporters, increased, because Hillary Clinton did everything in her power to recruit into her camp, those who continued to ‘Feel the Bern.’ That empowered not only the real progressives who supported Sanders, but also the repressives who falsely hide their true anti-liberal views under the ill-fitting cloak of progressivism. These repressives have little tolerance for differing viewpoints and seek to shut down speakers who refuse to tow their ‘politically correct line.’”

I cautioned that Clinton would be smart to resist the temptation to move leftward once she had secured the Democratic nomination. I urged her to run as a “liberal,” which is, in fact, what she is—a centrist liberal who rejects revolution and the radical dismantling of imperfect institutions, such as Obamacare. Like her husband, she should have remained at the liberal center, both on domestic and foreign policy issues. That has always been the winning strategy for Democrats, and the Sanders’ brushfire should not have changed that successful approach.

I argued that if Clinton felt the need to move to the far left, she might succeed in the short run in keeping some of Sanders’ supporters from staying home on Election Day, but she would risk alienating centrist, independent, and undecided voters, who determine the outcome of most national elections. I pointed out that it was likely that many of Sanders’s supporters would come out and vote for Clinton, though some who want to shake up the system might support Trump. Far-left zealots, who hate liberals even more than they hate conservatives, might stay home, but their numbers are relatively small, despite the loud noises they emit. Moreover, there is nothing Clinton could have done to satisfy the far-left repressives who want to overthrow existing institutions and suppress speech they deem incorrect. These intolerant extremists reject the idea that respect be accorded even to those with whom they disagree.

I think the same thing is true today in regard to Biden. It is important to understand that the differences between liberal candidates such as Biden, and far left Sanders supporters, are not merely matters of degree on many important issues. They are matters of kind. Biden wants realistic improvements in existing institutions, such as health care, capital markets, banking, the military, our education system, and other structures. Sanders and his far-left followers want revolutionary dismantling of these and other existing institutions. His most radical supporters want even more revolutionary structural changes that would destabilize and weaken our nation. It is not that Sanders’s most radical supporters are idealists whose ideas are good but unrealistic, and Biden a pragmatist whose ideas are compromises with their more radical ideals.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.