[Cincinatus' Wife]

Democrats are scary.

[MikeAtTheShore]

"On that basis, he sketches out a political program that is no less than a hybrid of socially progressive ideas and small-c conservatism: national health care, children's and citizens' savings accounts, tighter regulation of markets and corporations, a national energy strategy, environmentalism, and radical campaign-finance reform. In turn, Americans might be asked to pay a consumption tax, he says, participate in community service and learn to scale down their lifestyles to something more compatible with finite resources."

He wants the USA to become just like the Euro-Trash nations.
Who would have ever guessed.

[goldstategop]

A post industrial social democrat is a code word for a collectivist Commie. Say what what you will about Gary Hartpence at least he has the guts to say aloud what the other Democrats believe in but find it impolitic to say in public.

[jammer]

..learn to scale down their lifestyles to something more compatible with finite resources

Anyone for Jimmy Carter's malaise? If this one is emphasized, he won't go far--that speech was the beginning of the end for Jimmy and won't sell today.

[governsleastgovernsbest]

We must earn our rights by performance of our duties

Gee, and all this time I thought we were endowed by our Creator with certain unalienable rights. Silly me.

[Izzy Dunne]

"First is to restore the ideal of the republic.

--- I got no beef with that. That's what FR is here for. But it's the dems who are digging faster on this hole we are in.

'We must earn our rights by performance of our duties.'"

"Rights" are not "earned" - they are inalienable, remember?
I'm all for doing our duty, but our duty doesn't include all the welfare-state crapola you have foisted upon us.
It's a tough choice, but I'm still another FREEPER for AL.
(That's SHARPTON, not Gore or Yankovic)

[gulfcoast6]

Oh the ego of a 'has been' politician, they think they are so important that the world can not exist without them.

[ARepublicanForAllReasons]

The second is to shift American culture from consumption and spending to investment and saving.

What? This guy's got a button he can push or something? Oh, I get it -- the old command and control economy (cause people just can't be trusted).
We are too rich, that's the problem. Too much freedom to control our own destinies. We need the short leash, the era of limitations, the global village to get well. At least, that's the ever-recurring Demo message. Security over freedom, government 'guarantees' of benefits over real prosperity. Hart/Hillary would comprise a Demo dream ticket. (Course, maybe she wouldn't accept him as her VP.)

[Cincinatus]

Democrats are scary.

Aye... and stupid too.

[ricpic]

Notice, that this absolutely predictable walking cliche of a liberal, is credentialed up the wazoo.

The worldwide liberal establishment forms a kind of daisy chain: Continuously giving each other degrees and awards and incestuously publishing each other's tracts. And so a great resume is assembled. And - presto chango - we have a deep thinker ready to bestow his leadership upon us, the great unwashed.

We should be grateful. But somehow........

[Leisler]

"Participation, responsibility and ownership."

Soviet Industrial Poster

[Timm]

We can only gasp at Hart's brilliance and inspiration. What a scholar! What a profound man!

The sheer genius of his policy proposals will have economists and political scientists busy for decades. But I have to ask some of those better schooled in political philosophy to explain this revolutionary idea to me, as this product of an entirely new approach to human social organization has me bewildered. Let's see, the phrase I think Hart's people are using is this: "tax increase". Could anyone here unpack the depth of post-industrial republicanism sufficiently to even begin to explain this innovation?

[alley cat]

Communists = Democrats in a hurry

[AbsoluteJustice]

"Postindustrial social democrat" Gary Hart thinking about running for president again"

I didn't even want to read past the title. LOL Gary Hart...WHAT A JOKE!!! Is this the best Dumos can put up?? They are in sad sad shape.

[Nick Danger]

I am approaching geezerhood myself, so I suppose I ought to applaud the current trend toward running known geezers for high office. If this keeps up, my lifelong dream of being elected dogcatcher might someday be realized. Me and five hundred cute little puppies... and I get paid for it. Whoo Hoo!

So far geezers are 1-for-2 in these struggles. Lautenberg is once again a Senator, but Walter Mondale was sent back to the crypt to dry out after only one good party. Now the Republicans are talking about dusting off Pete Wilson, the only Senator ever to be shorter than Tom Daschle, to run against Barbara Boxer. It might work. The Bay Area, always a tough place for Republicans, has a soft spot for geezers. They elected Nancy Pelosi.

The last time out, Gary Hart had a problem keeping his hormones under control. After daring the press corps to catch him playing Casanova, Hart climbed into a boat named — of all things — "Monkey Business" with the lovely and talented Donna Rice.

In the years since, Rice has gone on to make a name for herself as a crusader against Internet porn. Hart has displayed less sense. As the manager of perhaps the worst presidential campaign debacle in Democratic Party history, he has spent the intervening years advising others on the subject of running campaigns. Hopefully this one will be his last.

[HumanaeVitae]

Postindustrial Social Democrat

Considering the industrial revolution brought about social-democratic politics, I'm not sure how coherent this moniker really is.