Too Conservative for America

Robert L. Borosage

October 23, 2006

Robert L. Borosage is co-director of the Campaign For America's Future.

The election is still two weeks off but the recriminations have already begun. Former Republican Majority Leader Dick Armey, a free-market ideologue, trashes James Dobson and the Christian Right as “thugs.” Dobson warns Republicans that the religious right may not turn out, dismayed by the Foley scandals and the lack of progress on their social agenda. Richard Viguerie, the mass mail guru of the far right, suggests that it might be a good thing for these “Big Government Republicans” to lose control and learn once more the power of the movement right.

Democrats tend to the giddy these days, but already signs of preemptive dissatisfaction are murmured on the left, as progressives bemoan the absence of any visible agenda, any big ideas, or any bold leader. And Senate leaders are already lining up to chastise progressives for demanding too much, for challenging Connecticut Sen. Joe Lieberman and pushing too hard on the war, on health care, on cleaning up Congress.