Balz doesn't examine the profound change in the Democratic Party that comes closest to explaining the sharply disparate reactions to the two disasters. Four years ago, Daily Kos was barely a glimmer in our eye, Joe Lieberman was a frontrunner for the 2004 nomination, Howard Dean was still considered a "moderate", the DLC was still ascendant, the words "liberal" and "lefty" were almost never spoken in polite conversation, The New Republic represented the mainsteam of Democratic thinking inside the Beltway and you wouldn't think twice about calling David Corn and The Nation "far-left." As I've documented, the party's vitriolic reaction to Katrina was shaped on the blogs. Had those blogs been around on 9/11, we would have seen the same response, with immediate cries of "Bush knew."
9 hours ago
1 comment:
No, things haven't changed that much. Daily KOS was in fact around back then (if less popular). The DLC and TNR had their critics on the Left. Lieberman was never that strong.
And, yes, the Left was really pissed off.
I recall reading in MSNBC at the time how pollsters were saying that the Left was "incandescant" with rage over the Florida recount.
The real difference now is that the Left has had four years to stew over the recount, 9/11, Iraq, their inability to control the White House, Congress or the SCOTUS, and everything else that bugs them.
Nowadays even my once-moderate liberal friends talk like Michael Moore is too soft on Bush.
Worrisome times.
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