There will be time,
there will be time
To prepare a face to
meet the faces that you meet…
In a minute there is
time
For decisions and
revisions which a minute will reverse.
-- T.S. Eliot, “The Love Song of J. Alfred
Prufrock
The title of the story, “As
Democrats drift left, liberal firebrand Rep. Rosa DeLauro finds herself
squarely in the center,” was unintentionally confusing.
How is it possible for a “firebrand liberal” to occupy a
position at the center of a Democrat Party that in the recent past has given us
such non-firebrand liberal governors as Ella Grasso and Abraham Ribicoff? The national Democrat
Party, we are informed, has moved radically to the left, leaving firebrand liberals
such as DeLauro at the center of a party undergoing radical reinvention.
The wave unmooring the national Democrat Party and pushing
it far to the left is not a resurgent liberal eddy; it is a progressive maelstrom.
Liberals differ from progressives precisely in the same way that former
Democrat Governor of Connecticut Ella Grasso differs from far leftists in
the new Democrat Party represented by political anarchists such as progressive
firebrands Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and
other members of “the squad.”
On a ladder of ascending radicalism, progressives stand at
mid-ladder, socialists near the top. At the very pinnacle of resurgent
radicalism, communists and proto-communists pierce a totalitarian heaven emptied
of fascists, even though we know that totalitarian fascists and communists are
historical outgrowths from the same socialist seed.
There is, however, a categorical difference between
liberalism and socialism. American and continental liberalism, as philosopher
Roger Scruton remind us in his new book, “Conservativism; An Invitation to the
Great Tradition,” springs from a desire to conserve an historical political
architecture that advances the public
good, an aggressively anti-totalitarian impetus embedded in the
liberal/conservative tradition and history of Western Europe.
In a tousle with Democrat Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi,
DeLauro’s beau ideal of a liberal firebrand, the squad lost face, but the fire
in their bellies still rages blisteringly hot. The question now before the radicalized
progressive political house is: Where is the locus of the fire within the tried
and true, old Democrat liberals – in their mouths, or in their bellies? Are
DeLauro and Pelosi simply “talking a progressive game” for campaign purposes,
while intending to govern as unfashionable liberals? The very same question
hangs ominously over Connecticut, increasingly perceived across the nation as
a failed state. Are progressives in Connecticut talking a progressive game
while governing as status quo
liberals?
Progressive Democrats washed into office during the last
non-presidential election, about half of the Democrat caucus in the General
Assembly, want to move from the back benches to the front row -- now. They do
not want to listen and learn from senior elected Democrats. They want to rule.
Their battle cry is – “Step aside! We are the new torch bearers.”
U.S. Senator Chris Murphy, we are told, was instrumental in hauling
a load of progressives into the state’s General Assembly. Is Murphy himself a
progressive? We can be relatively certain he is not an AOC political anarchist.
The seductive temptation of rule – Murphy has been in the U.S. Congress for six
years – tends to soften revolutionary ambition. One of Connecticut’s most
ardent gun control advocates, Murphy may be quite willing to declare war on the
National Rifle Association (NRA) – but declaring war on Pelosi and DeLauro may
be a bridge to far for the state’s junior U.S. Senator. It is one thing to cut
the throat of an enemy strawman like the NRA, quite another to cut your own
throat. By the time Murphy's re-election prospect rolls around, he will have
moderated his views considerably – just like DeLauro and Pelosi.
U.S. Senator Dick Blumenthal, sensing his invulnerability,
appears to have ramped up his progressive bona
fides for his reelection campaign in 2022. Blumenthal, for instance, favors
socialist Bernie Sanders’ plot to enact universal health care, not incidentally
reducing to insignificance Connecticut’s still vibrant insurance industry. If
ever Blumenthal is faced with an articulate Republican opponent, he may yet
stumble over the corpse of a disappointing report issued by special counsel Bob
Muller that has found no collusion between communist snake in the grass
President Vladimir Putin and Blumenthal’s bete
noire, President Donald Trump -- who, long before his victorious presidential
campaign, sought to wrest the Empire State building from Blumenthal’s father-in
law.
Blumenthal
has either brought suit himself or joined in numerous court actions with others
designed to blacken the Trump presidency. However,
there is a small cloud on the horizon, yet no larger than a hand, an
investigation by U.S. Attorney of the District of Connecticut John Durham that
seeks to uncover the prequel to the Muller investigation in which the Obama
administration and Blumenthal's bosom pal, then Secretary of State Hillary
Clinton, appear to have played a decisive role.
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