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Here is Tyler Cowen reprinting E.J. Dionne:

The right wing has lost the election of 2012.

The evidence for this is overwhelming, yet it is the year’s best-kept secret. Mitt Romney would not be throwing virtually all of his past positions overboard if he thought the nation were ready to endorse the full-throated conservatism he embraced to win the Republican nomination.

…The right is going along because its partisans know Romney has no other option. This, too, is an acknowledgment of defeat, a recognition that the grand ideological experiment heralded by the rise of the tea party has gained no traction.

Of course, my takeaway from this is probably different than most people. My “friends” on the left (they’ve all largely abandoned me I think) would read this as evidence that their ideological view is “right.” And they are happy to that … opinion because that is what it is. I see it rather differently. I see it not as vindication for a statist, “progressive”, corporatist, anti-civil liberties world-view – those ideas have always been popular, rather it’s evidence that … well, you insert what you want for this last point.

One Response to “I Could Not Agree More Heartily Than I Do Now”

  1. RIT_Rich says:

    It’s evidence that those ideas have always been popular…and that it’s always easier to attract people through populism than through individualism; i.e. people are the same as they have always been. That being said, I don’t think “Romney” or the “Tea Party” have failed to make the “right” message popular. Certainly, not if this is based on the statements that Romney makes in debates (which I agree are very pathetic). Debates are aimed at the undecided, not at the majority of the people. What is said in public for the sake of politics shouldn’t be taken for granted as the prevailing opinions of the messenger, or the supporter of the messenger. Actions will tell.

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