The New Progressives

Ron’s got a great post over at Middle Earth Journal called “The real Howard Dean and what it means.” Definitely worth a read in its entirety. In part, Ron says:

We will find that the problem Dean has is not driving away the moderates but keeping the support of those on the left who were his biggest supporters.

It’s a fair point, because Dean is a fiscal conservative, which by traditional definitions, makes him a moderate rather than a liberal. But I wonder if we haven’t bid adieu to those definitions, at least to some extent. Someone like me, whose first chance to vote was for Clinton, came of age with a fiscal conservative, and we liked what we saw. Part of this may well be an illusion, created by an atypical economy, but nonetheless, the point remains the same—we are not averse toward fiscal conservatism, or more appropriately fiscal responsibility, particularly as applied with liberal objectives in mind, i.e. less spending on ludicrously unnecessary (and non-functional) defense programs in favor of domestic and international social programs. There is a belief, I feel, that a balanced budget is possible, and that neither social programs that liberals favor nor a reasonable defense budget have to suffer in the process.

It is good policy to have a balanced budget for a variety of reasons, many of which become increasingly apparent with an exploding deficit. If nothing else, we see, as we always suspected, that when attempts are eventually made to reduce a huge deficit, the programs that we support tend to be the first to be deemed expendable. Dean’s centrism is not only tolerable, but embraced by many progressives of a certain age, for which we have to thank Clinton. (Indeed, one might argue that truly progressive politics demands our championing of budgetary moderation, to ensure continued funding for the populist programs that are forever destined to be attacked as "luxuries" during a fiscal crisis.)

I am never accused of being a moderate, but I do support a balanced budget that favors social programs over tax cuts for the wealthy and/or a bloated defense budget. Fiscal responsibility may be considered centrist, but it’s also wise. Dean, where it matters, is resolutely a liberal—he supports for civil rights for all Americans, he supports keeping abortion legal, he does not support the war, he believes in providing accessible and affordable healthcare, etc.—and he will have no problem selling his brand of moderation to me.