The Gray Lady's token center-right commentator David Brooks today offers a reality check, by way of certain-to-be-true prognostication, on Democratic hopes for hope in a Democratic presidency. The obvious truth that Brooks soberly exposes is that neither potential Democratic POTUS will be able to fulfill promises to the party's base to withdraw American troops from Iraq or initiate massive the federal programs with their attendant spending. That is, neither will be able to do so without creating disasters that will expose the lie of the left's agenda.
Brooks is best when he points out that the same contradiction was at the heart of the 1992 Clinton campaign. Remember the middle-class tax cut that evaporated a week after the election? Robert Rubin's fiscal realities crashed Robert Reich's hope for change. And we doubt that Slick Willie was the least bit surprised.
In the harsh light of obvious realities, "Yes we can"--really the appeal of both Democrats, whose policy positions, insofar as they are available to us, are indistinguishable--becomes yet another vapid, positive-thinking mantra that really amounts to shallow self-delusion.
SWNID repeats our own parable on such matters. Simply wanting an outcome deeply is no assurance that the outcome is possible. SWNID may want to dunk a basketball through a rim at standard height using no artificial means of attaining altitude. SWNID may work hard at improving our vertical jump for said outcome. But SWNID's bitter and obvious reality is shortness and middle age, preventing even our most dearly held hoop dreams from becoming reality.
Before "Yes we can" must come answers to fundamental questions, like "What can we do with what we have?"
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