How Far We've Come

I think I've written about this before, but-- in light of all this schadenfreude over the conservative crackup-- I wanted to remark what an improvement the Democratic side of things is over our 2004 situation.

That year, the party selected John Kerry because they believed he was the most 'electable', stripped him of any beliefs or principles he had, and marketed him as a cautious centrist war hero. He was the best Not Bush we could find. He couldn't win lose. But what did he stand for, other than as alternative to the worst President ever (good enough for me, but that was a low bar)?

What was Sen. Kerry's health-care plan? His stance on trade and globalization? His proposals for dealing with climate change? His precise exit strategy for Iraq? His views on direct diplomacy with unpopular leaders? Etc. I am sure he had positions on these issues, but I can only vaguely remember reading about them, and I am a political junkie. Suffice to say, whatever agenda he had was overly cautious and not very well-publicized.

This time around, however, we have candidates (including those who have left the race) not afraid to buck the conventional wisdom on many issues. They have policies on issues like health-care and foreign affairs and they want you know about them! The overall agenda is not as progressive/liberal as I would like (single-payer, anyone?), but compared to where we were in 2004, it definitely is. And with likely gains in the House and Senate again, we actually stand a chance of even seeing some of this stuff passed. It's a long way to November, but I like where we are right now.