The Death of Triangulation

The Washington Post ^ | August 10, 2006 | Eli Pariser

[neverdem]

Ned Lamont's victory Tuesday night in Connecticut's U.S. Senate primary is great news for Democrats. And it's a watershed moment for the growing majority of Americans, in red states and blue, who want change.

For months, polls have warned that across the political spectrum people are fed up -- with the no-end-in-sight occupation of Iraq; with an energy policy that caters to oil giants while gasoline prices soar; with a health-care system that leaves more behind with every passing day. Lamont's victory is evidence that a long-awaited wave of voter sentiment on those issues has materialized.

It's certainly understandable that Republicans would prefer to see Democrats continue to run the temporizing candidates whom they've had little trouble trouncing for the past decade. But you'd think Democratic strategists would be jumping for joy -- after all, they should be able to ride the anti-incumbent feeling to victory in November. Instead, we hear the perennial pundit nattering about moving the party too far to the left. And Marshall Wittmann of the Democratic Leadership Council -- who stubbornly refuses to address the real civil war in Iraq -- invokes the specter of a domestic civil war within the party.

That's because while Lamont's victory is a promising development, it marks the beginning of the end for an old favorite of Washington insiders -- the tactics of triangulation. Originally employed as a survival strategy by a Democratic president in the wake of 1994's Republican revolution, the policy of seizing the political middle ground no longer makes sense in an era when any attempt at bipartisanship is understood as a sign of Democratic weakness and exploited accordingly.

Had triangulation worked, we'd be in a different moment. But for six long years, it hasn't. Even Sen. Hillary Clinton has seen the writing on the wall in...

[neverdem]

The writer is executive director of the MoveOn Political Action Committee.

Straight from the donkey's mouth, "The Death of Triangulation" is fine with me. Let the real reds be red, i.e. the left.

[Jazzman1]

PLEASE put a 'BARF ALERT' on this drivel. Shheeesshhh.

[Paladin2]

DemonRats in car driven by Thelma and Louise. Have a nice flight 'Rats, as they say, "you'll be on the ground soon".

[Don Corleone]

"Oh please, please don't throw me in the briar patch."

[DoughtyOne]

Yep, they never sold me on that redifining of the blue/red lines. Bull s--t!

The right is blue. The socialists/communists are red. End of story.

[clintonh8r]

Eli may change his spin when Uncle Ned gets his ass handed to him in the general election.

[goldstategop]

I agree. I hope they all move to where they really are - Hard Left. This mask of phony moderation the Democratic Party wore has only served to confuse the gullible. Eli Pariser is the first Democrat I've seen who makes absolute sense!

(Go Israel, Go! Slap 'Em Down Hezbullies.)

[The Electrician]

The writer is executive director of the MoveOn Political Action Committee.

I'm glad that the article had that disclaimer. From the tone and content of the rhetoric I would have guessed that the writer was the executive director of the Soviet Communist Party's Central Committee...

[oldironsides]

No mention at all of Moveon.org following the lead and money of a convicted felon. The very same felon that was booted from the nation of Georgia for meddling in the election there. Moveon.org is manure for the garden of hate.

[lonestar67]

What is really pathologically fascinating is that 98% of these voters live in large urban areas which would be the first ones obliterated in the peacenik bogus world they envision. Terrorists target big cities-- HELLO. Is anyone home?

[dr_who_2]

The last time the press was all abuzz about how the voters wanted "change", they elected the guy who invented "triangulation".

[Armigerous]

.....well straight from the donkey at any rate....but I had this coming from another part of it's anatomy

[Tzimisce]

>Ned Lamont's victory Tuesday night in Connecticut's U.S. Senate primary is great news for Democrats. And it's a watershed moment for the growing majority of Americans, in red states and blue, who want change.<

No it was more a victory for Moveon.org and other left wing special interests.

>For months, polls have warned that across the political spectrum people are fed up -- with the no-end-in-sight occupation of Iraq; with an energy policy that caters to oil giants while gasoline prices soar; with a health-care system that leaves more behind with every passing day. Lamont's victory is evidence that a long-awaited wave of voter sentiment on those issues has materialized.<

Wow! All left wing causes. I'm so shocked. I agree, this needed a Barf Alert....

[LdSentinal]

MoveOn took out a Orthodox Jew.

Al-Queda is very proud.

[gogeo]

Does the Post have to report this as an in-kind contribution?

[hershey]

If the dem primary election had been held a few days later, Lieberman might well have won. Dem voters might have become a tad complacent vis a vis terrorist threats against the US.

[HANG THE EXPENSE]

What a bunch of BULL FEATHERS.Look! Here comes the cliff!

[Fiddlstix]

Presented as a Public Service
Certain FReepers may need this

Click the Pic

[Calpernia]

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1681594/posts?page=5#5

Spirit's been on that one too!

[Dark Skies]

During my early days in NYC, I had a house in Darien. I later learned that Darien was considered the most anti-semitic town in America during WWII.

I just remember it as the most materialist town in America...

Looking back on that period, I am ashamed of myself that I lived in a town of either reputation.