| | The Overton window is moving to the right. Eliminating the Fed is still very radical, and some of Ron Paul's foriegn policy will always be controversial. But people are concerned about the Fed when before they didn't even know what it was. And a number of the new Tea Party candidates voted against the Patriot Act's renewal. We hear members of congress calling for a replacement of the Income Tax, and it looks like a balanced budget act will pass the house this year (If it doesn't, there will be a lot of congressman replaced in 2012).
But that Overton window is moving right for the Republicans while most of the progressives are fighting to stay where they are - forming a larger and clearer chasm between them. This is good in the sense of letting the people debate the more fundamental differences, and move towards Libertarian principles more out of knowledge and choice. This move will eventually leave the progressives visibly isolated in fringe land - and marginalized. Moves that come without the knowledge, and moves that are prompted more by a crisis than with allegiance to a set of principles or a vision of what could be are not as solid and not as likely to last.
Like Bill, I'm somewhat optimistic. Succeed or fail, our current political scene shows movement in the right direction and for the right reason (no puns intended). And some of the intellectual gains made by the populace regarding political principles will endure. If the economy doesn't totally tank in the next 3 or 4 years, and if the Tea Party stays fired up enough to keep replacing bad politicians with significantly better choices, we actually begin bending the curve towards freedom at an ever-increasing slope. (On the economy I still remain pessimistic - we have built in some large problems whose corrections will, at best, be painful to live through.)
I'm also seeing this battle with the unions, initially over collective bargaining with states as a wonderful move. The unions and their supporters are pulling out all the stops to fight this in Wisconsin, the first state to support collective bargaining and perhaps the most pro-union state. They are holding up children and education and a 'right' to a decent wage while the pundits are saying why should any group have the power to reach into the taxpayers pocket to given themselves such a plush set of benefits and why is the government in the educational business. That is a well framed debate. A win there should cause a roll-out across the country of getting unions out of the government - killing an unholy alliance. It would be good to see a couple more governors with solid Republican majorities in their legislature kick off at the same time the Wisconsin battle is going on - so that it is clear that this is a national issue that is being fought at the state level. The practical side is to take away alot of support and toleration for union political activities, take away a lot of support money for the progressives, and reduce the power and prestige of one of our culture's key repositories of quasi-communistic thinking and the primary private advocate of class warfare.
(Edited by Steve Wolfer on 2/20, 12:15pm)
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