The L-word: Senator Specter Changes Trains

In my new biography of I.F. Stone, legendary investigative journalist and one-time Washington correspondent for this magazine, I occasionally use the term "liberal" with what some readers may consider a lack of due reverence. If we are all, as Newsweek recently insisted, socialists now, then surely we ought to be even more delighted to answer to the name liberal. To which eminently reasonable argument I can only reply: not so fast. There are really two points here. The first, perhaps lesser, is that truth in labeling matters. If what we want is a society where the market is not the supreme arbiter of values, and where goods are allocated at least partly on the basis of need or other social criteria rather than simply ability to pay, we ought to say so, loud and proud. So although many of my oldest friends are liberals, I wouldn't use the L-word to describe my own politics.

What does this have to do with Arlen Specter? Partly I'm trying to figure out why the news that he'd crossed the aisle made me smile this morning. I don't think I have a sentimental take on how rapidly, even with 60 Democrats, the U.S. Senate is likely to bring about the blessed community. And although somewhere in our barn in Vermont I still have the campaign button my father, a Democratic precinct captain, wore when Specter, then a registered Democrat, but, far more important in our household, a Jew, ran for District Attorney of Philadelphia, I don't think filial devotion or ethnic loyalty explains it either. Certainly Arlen Specter is no Bernie Sanders (though of course the Nation has had plenty of arguments with Vermont's socialist senator over the years as well).

Trying to get a quick handle on what Specter stood for (apart from not having to run in a Republican primary he looked like losing) I went to the Americans for Democratic Action, whose voting scorecard is often used by lazy journalists as a kind of gold standard for liberalism. Taking the ADA's quick "How liberal are you?" quiz I scored a gratifying 100 per cent--though I confess I wobbled a bit on parental notification (we have 3 kids) and felt the economic questions were pretty tepid stuff (but then they are based on congressional votes, so no surprise there. Nor any chance to vote for sending Bush and Cheney to the Hague.) Specter scored 45 per cent--not in the same league as Schumer, Klobuchar, Sanders, Feingold and other 100 per centers, but more liberal than Bob Dole or John Warner. In fact the only other Senator who matched Specter's score was the (former) junior Senator from Illinois, who sent his own congratulations to the new Democrat yesterday.

What's cheering about all this is not that Specter has joined the ranks of ADA liberals--a group who come in for a fair amount of well-earned abuse in my book (which, though perhaps an indication of my poor judgement, is also testimony to the saintly patience of my editor, Elisabeth Sifton, whose father was one of the group's founders.) No, what I find cheering is the thought that despite the tanking economy, an underpowered stimulus package and Democratic complicity in two disastrous wars, the calculation of self-interest still goes against the tea-baggers, dittoheads and other Republican fear mongers. Liberals and those of us on their left are going to have to get used to the fact that, in terms of the national mood, all of us who want to see radical change are pushing at an open door. If we push together, who knows how far we can get?

Comments (13)

1. ask for twice what you think you need/can get realistically/want, bitch publically when you get half what you ask for, and congratulate yourself in private for a job well done...

   Posted by ibbleblibble at 04/29/2009 @ 3:32pm

2. I'm not completely impressed with Specter's reasons for switching. However, I think that it's always great to see politicians who aren't afraid of going against their party, even if it means joining another party. We need more bipartisanship to tackle the biggest problems in the world such as measles, malaria, and malnutrition. The Borgen Project has good info on the estimated cost of ending global poverty:

   $30 billion: Annual shortfall to end world hunger.

   $550 billion: U.S. Defense budget.

   Posted by davidwaters at 04/29/2009 @ 3:41pm

3. How brilliant "conservatives" were to brand "liberal" as a dirty word. The greatest political achievement the world has known is liberal government. Unfortunately, just as with the ACLU, the term has been effectively associated with failed social policy. Democrats aren't smart enough, or liberal enough, to reclaim the honor the term deserves.

   Posted by debrae at 04/29/2009 @ 6:05pm

4. "The greatest political achievement the world has known is liberal government."Posted by debrae at 04/29/2009 @ 6:05pm

   Boy that sure is a well kept secret, since there has never been one!

   Posted by comancheamerican at 04/29/2009 @ 10:08pm

5. Obama's trademark "Yes We Can" has been embraced by the Iranian president in a promotional video making the rounds in the ramp-up to Iran's presidential poll on 12 June, when Ahmadinejad is up for re-election.

   The "Yes We Can" videos have been distributed during Ahmadinejad's public appearances in and around the capital city of Tehran.

   The can-do films are running in tandem these days with another video highlighting his various trips to poor provinces across Iran, a routine that has become a standard practice during his tenure in office.

   Ahmadinejad's remarkable rise to power four years ago has been partly attributed to a promotional film that featured him as a simple man who was willing to reach out to the poor.

   According to the Guardian, the Obama-inspired film features Ahmadinejad wearing his ubiquitous white jacket, pointing to the Farsi phrase Ma Mitavanim (We Can) on a blackboard.

   The film targets students and highlights his former persona as a university lecturer.

   Wow, there are regressives everywhere now! Obamanation and Ahmad are just two peas in a pod!

   Posted by comancheamerican at 04/29/2009 @ 10:15pm

6. Posted by comancheamerican at 04/29/2009 @ 10:15pm

   RIO, again...it's plagiarism when you don't cite the original source.

   I mean, you don't expect us to believe YOU wrote that first section, do you???

   Posted by Mask at 04/30/2009 @ 08:23am

7. Helping rio out here and posting the link to the material that he plagiarized:

   http://www.newsmax.com/insidecover

   /ahmadinejad_yes_we_can/2009/04/29/208856.html

   Posted by BlackFrancis at 04/30/2009 @ 1:27pm

8. Boy that sure is a well kept secret, since there has never been one!

   Good point, in a way.

   Posted by debrae at 04/30/2009 @ 1:31pm

9. Posted by BlackFrancis at 04/30/2009 @ 1:27pm

   I wonder sometimes if RIO/comanche doesn't post the source of his Cut & Pastes, not out of a plagiaristic streak....but because he knows most of his sources are so WACKO (like newsmax or World Nut Daily) that they'd be laughed off before any debate.

   Posted by Mask at 04/30/2009 @ 1:45pm

10. Posted by Mask at 04/30/2009 @ 1:45pm

    Debate? I can't say I've ever seen Rio, "debate" anything. Colorful descriptions like "Satan's favorite daughter" tell the tale long before anyone gets around to noticing he isn't sourcing his cut-and-pastes.

    Posted by srjenkins at 04/30/2009 @ 10:22pm

11. What was it that Reagan said about the democratic party? "I didn't leave the democratic party the party left me." That is probably the cutest and most astute thing Mr. anti protectionist, union busting, old goofy said. What the heck took Arlen so long? I left that party when it stopped being the party of Margaret Chase Smith, Dwight D. Eisenhower, and William Cohen. I still vote for Susan Collins and Olympia Snow, but I think the rest of that crowd like Kit Bond, a really cool name, and Michael Steel, old rusty, are pathological deviants.

    Posted by julien38 at 05/01/2009 @ 10:13am

12. As a native Pennsylvanian, I must say Arlen is enigmatic. Yet, he is often fortunate in his opposition.

    If he wins the democratic primary, he's in...Toomey's maybe even more of a nutter than Santorum (if that's possible).

    Specter wins if the democrats of Pa. let him. I'm not entirely convinced of that, However.

    Posted by erazma at 05/01/2009 @ 8:50pm

13. I like Spector, but I don't like the rigid standoffs resulting from stale incumbencies. Think how rare this crossing of lines is...

    Posted by winyahn at 05/02/2009 @ 02:55am