In a recent issue of The New Republic, Robert Kuttner lamented that the Democrats had somehow managed to end up running for the Presidency with a “budget document” for a manifesto, while the Republicans had a more inspiring message. He wondered how “the party of Roosevelt got itself into this fix. The budgetary obsession has something to do with Walter Mondale’s famous caution, but Mondale himself explains only a small part of the revenge of the fiscal nerds.”
Well he’s right to worry, and how it happened is a question worth pondering, although I’m not sure I follow his explanation, which has something to do with “a feel for networking and pamphleteering” on the “intellectual Right.” (That’s us, folks.)
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