ABOUT THIS SERIES

by David Brin, Ph.D.

This article is part of a series that offers cantankerously tilted perspectives on modern politics.

The fight to restore and re-invigorate a confident nation requires that we stand up for the pragmatic moderation against every sort of dogmatism -- of both right and left -- even those toward which we feel kinship. It is time to recognize that dogmatists have as many deep traits in common as superficial differences. In aggregate, they have oversimplified and poisoned political and social discourse in America, and many other places. Discourse that should all be about solving complex problems, not preening at each other and shouting that "My ideology is bigger than your ideology!"

Elsewhere, I go into detail about my own quirky place on the political landscape, unashamedly both "liberal" and "libertarian" wherever each seems best at dealing with a particular issue and most likely to help make a world that is both better and more free. Both richer and more accountable to the needs of future generations. This is not "tepid." Nor is it "republican-light." It is militantly moderate. Or passionately pragmatic-progressive. Whatever. We'll come up with a name. Then get used to it.

In fact, this article is one where I unabashedly take sides. I may be a registered Republican and a speaker at Libertarian Party conventions, but there is no doubt that the fate of American democracy demands a major Democratic victory in the next few elections, Our ancestors fought down attempted tyrannies, in order to keep the miracle alive. They demand no less from us, when faced by a pack of proto-tyrants and monsters who have set Barry Goldwater spinning in his grave.

In a companion article I also give a list of two dozen practical suggestions for how progressive people might achieve political victory in the present decade.

But here, the theme is more abstract. It is time to start dissecting exactly why and how liberalism became pathetically impotent as a major political force, and how its every weakness has been exploited by some of the more clever -- if amoral -- operatives that this nation has ever seen.