Call Back the Hounds!

This is really getting out of hand.

David Sirota writes a piece on economic populism. The DLC wing of the party criticizes it. Then Sirota responds, bashing the DLC as corporate shills. Ed Kilgore effectively brands Sirota as an ignoramus. Matt Yglesias requests the comabtants put down their knives even while piling on. Can we calm down please?

This debate over populism has more heat than light. There is far more ground in common between the 2 warring factions than the combatants realize. For example, if you compare the DLC-sponsored Marshall Wittman piece to David Sirota's article in the Prospect, there is considerable overlap. Both believe Democrats need to make a greater effort to work over white working class voters. Both believe reframing the economic debate in moral terms is central to this task. Both sides think we should finesse cultural issues, and neither side is happy with the Bush foreign policy. Can't we all just get along?

I think this debate is driven largely impulses ingrained from long-term intraparty disputes. People are rehearsing very old arguments accusing the other side of being pinheads when in reality the debate is over. There is a synthesis lying on the table, and both sides are fighting over who gets to grab it. The DLC is not irredeemably pro-corporate. Populists are not empty-headed left wing nutjobs. What we are arguing about is whether the volume on the stereo, not what music we should listen to.

So chill out!