Jul 04, 2008
I always liked Gary Hart, the politician undone by a photograph. His recent op-ed piece in the New York Times addresses the cycles American politics goes through, the swings from left to right, from conservatism to innovation, and speculates about the new cycle that, by anyone's calculation, is due—or overdue. He summarizes what the new cycle should stand for:

...the next American cycle should include, at minimum, three elements. National security requires a new, expanded, post-cold-war definition. America must transition from a consumer economy to a producing one. And the moral obligations of our stewardship of the planet must become paramount.

He dares Obama to “use his campaign as a platform for designing a new political cycle and achieve a mandate for starting it.” I believe Obama offered that promise throughout the primary campaign. I also believe that that promise is beginning to crumble in one reversal, one retreat, one flip-flop after another. If Obama loses the base of the young, the progressive, and the politically alienated, he will not prevail in November. Nor will he deserve to.
tags: Politics

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