The Hidden Costs of Clean Elections Book

I ran across this at a book swap and thought I'd take a look back at a progressive-based policy critique from 2008, particularly the idea that the Third Way/centrist/neoliberal/pro-war wing of the DNC has continually fouled things up by becoming to much like the Republicans that they can't actually claim progressive ideals...and that this is why they've had so many electoral losses.

Unfortunately, despite eight years of Democratic governance in the interim (Hillary was thought to be the surefire winner when this was written), the DNC establishment still has its collective head in the sand.

Until we get a candidate through the process who isn't so beholden to the "war, good; socialism, bad" baloney, we're just going to keep losing ground. The Democrats allow themselves to get dragged three notches to the right, then when they're in power, they move one notch back to the left...but it's still two notches too far to the right. Lather, rinse, and repeat enough times and you end up with a party that's so far to the right of its former self that its previous nominees wouldn't believe it was the same organization.

Wake up, populace: Hillary Clinton ran on a platform that was in almost every way more conservative than Richard Nixon's 1972 reelection campaign. The electorate wants a choice that's not in the pocket of the defense industry, the oil industry, or the corporate robber barons. ANY of the primary candidates would do well to hire Matthew Yglesias as an advisor!