The Guns of August, and Why the Republican Right Was So Adept at Using Them on Health Care

Robert Reich's Blog by Robert Reich | Aug. 31, 2009 (Editorial)

(Blog Post) What we learned in August is something we've long known but keep forgetting: The most important difference between America's Democratic left and Republican right is that the left has ideas and the right has discipline. Obama and progressive supporters of health care were outmaneuvered in August -- not because the right had any better idea for solving the health care mess but because the rights' attack on the Democrats' idea was far more disciplined than ... Full Story »

Posted by Doug Greer

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Kaizar Campwala
3.0
 by Kaizar Campwala - Sep. 1, 2009

This piece is highly partisan. Which can be okay, but this piece is unfortunately fraught with over-generalizations. Moreover, the comparison he makes is fairly obvious (conservatives conserve the status quo), and gloss over the role of interest groups in policy formation by both parties.

You want to know why the left has ideas and the right has discipline? Because people who like ideas and dislike authority tend to identify with the Democratic left, while people who feel threatened by new ideas and more comfortable in a disciplined and ordered world tend to identify with the Republican right. Democrats and progressives let a thousand flowers bloom. Republicans and the right issue directives. This has been the yin and yang of American politics and culture. But it means that the Democratic left’s new ideas often fall victim to its own notorious lack of organization and to the right’s highly-organized fear mongering.

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