The Music Must Change

Martin Peretz of the liberal New Republic magazine echoes many points that conservatives have been making about the modern face of liberalism–and indeed, he echoes more than a few themes we’ve illustrated here. His essay is titled, “Not Much Left“, and frankly (if you’ll pardon the pun), he’s right: the Class of ’72 has run aground, and conservatism has assimilated much of the rest of traditional liberalism’s ideas. Additionally, George W. Bush has co-opted many of Bill Clinton’s “third way” concepts, making many leftwing politicians look like sputtering hypocrites as they now bitterly oppose the very same ideas that they backed when President Clinton offered them in the 1990s (not the least of which were regime change in Iraq and Social Security reform).

It’s a must-read piece. But will anyone in Peretz’s intended audience heed his advice?

Update: Not surprisingly, Orrin Judd and Pejman Yousefzadeh have some thoughts.