Stuck in the past

February 5th, 2008 1:21 pm · 0 comments

Fareed Zakaria, in a Newsweek piece on Hillary vs. Obama, on how Hillary remains stuck in the old dichotomy:

Bill and Hillary Clinton grew up in an era of Republican dominance. For much of the last 30 years, the Republican Party has been the party of ideas (a point made repeatedly by Daniel Patrick Moynihan), and Ronald Reagan was seen by much of the country to have rescued America from malaise and retreat. The Clintons’ careers have been shaped by the belief that for a Democrat to succeed, he or she had to work within this conservative ideological framework. Otherwise one would be pilloried for being weak on national security, partial to taxes and big government and out of touch with Middle America’s social values.

For 30 years this has been the right bet. It’s why Bill Clinton was the only successful national Democratic politician in that period. But is it still the right wager? Obama has grown up in a different landscape—with vastly different geopolitics, economics and culture. Bill Clinton and George W. Bush have been the defining political figures of the recent past. Conservatism has lost its monopoly role. As a result, the new generation is not defensive about its beliefs, nor does it feel trapped into the old categories like hawks versus doves and markets versus taxes.

But Hillary does; and whatever it is she really believes, could she be expected to act upon those beliefs if elected - or would she remain trapped within the old framework?

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  0 comments  Tags: Election 2008 · Obama · Hillary · Democratic candidates

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