This is like reading David Brooks, in The New York Times before he became a Political Prophet, and Self-Help Guru to divorced over 40 males, in his utterly pretentious ‘The Second Mountain: The Quest for a Moral Life‘: the places, personages and the political landscape look familiar, yet they don’t reflect anything but an ideologically determined reading of a political present.
Mr Ganesh has confected, via his Neo-Liberalism, or should I say ,in the thrall to the myth that Obama is the political touchstone, that the New Democrats must contend. Obama’s de facto pardon of Wall Street, Investment House. and Banking thieves is a monument to political opportunism, that gives that opportunism a bad name!
This paragraph of Mr. Ganesh’s essay makes the case for Bloomberg in its dubious sub rosa way, as ‘reluctant but civic minded’. Mr. Patrick is mere what? Rhetorical embellishment, acting as argumentative ballast? While placing his own opinions, in the political thought, calculation of ‘…among a certain class of Democrat — rich donors, the media…’ .
This week, a grateful America has been told to anticipate late presidential bids from the reluctant but civic-minded. Michael Bloomberg, the former New York mayor, and Deval Patrick, who once governed the state of Massachusetts, are among them. Each man taps into a vein of doubt among a certain class of Democrat — rich donors, the media — about the current options. These are variously too old (Joe Biden), too young (Pete Buttigieg), too extreme (Elizabeth Warren, Bernie Sanders) and too obscure (Amy Klobuchar). The hopefuls have “wilted upon inspection”, writes Andrew Sullivan, a conservative who longs to be rid of President Donald Trump.
Quoting American political hysteric Andrew Sullivan adds nothing in the way of usable or valuable insight. But is it usable in making the case that the Democrats i.e. the New Democrats don’t actually offer some kind of viable , winning candidate that can defeat Trump? Mr. Ganesh relies on ‘polling data’ to add weight to his arguments yet this from Saturday 5 November 2016 :
Headline:Survey finds Hillary Clinton has ‘more than 99% chance’ of winning election over Donald Trump
Sub-headline: The Princeton Election Consortium found Ms Clinton has a projected 312 electoral votes across the country and only 270 are needed to win
Has Mr. Ganesh missed this ?
Headline:Hillary Clinton Says She Faces ‘Enormous Pressure’ to Run in 2020
Sub-headline:The 2016 Democratic presidential candidate said ‘never say never,’ but added that a run is ‘absolutely not in my plans.’
Old Socialist
https://www.ft.com/content/918c31f8-05f3-11ea-a984-fbbacad9e7dd