In Extremis

Kos says the Dems are drowning because they weren't progressive enough. Brendan Nyhan says it's a myth that parties benefit from veering to their respective extremes (left, in the case of the Dems), and that, rather, the Donks are drowning because the economy is weak.

Now, it may be true, as many point out and the teabaggers prove, that pols using red meat (i.e., veering to the extreme) to fire up the base tends to alienate undecideds and so imperil that party's electoral prospects. But I'm just gonna poke my little mouse head up and squeek that the economy remains weak precisely because the buh-Donk-uh-Donks have not pursued a progressive monetary policy. As Atrios continuously points out: we're ruled by people who think 10% unemployment isn't a crisis. That's not level-headed centrism, as I gather Nyhan would think. That's Hoover-ism.

I restate my fervent wish that there was a viable third choice in this country. We have the Party of No and the Party of Not Yet. The party of bullies and the party of co-dependents and sycophants.

Nyhan is right about the symptoms, but Kos is right about the cause. Kos is right because progressivism isn't running to the left, it's running to the true center of this country. And if Dems ever get that through their cowardly skulls we'll see a blossoming of the wise left the likes of which followed WWII.

Commence holding of breath in 3...2...1...