By Owen Paine on Wednesday December 6, 2006 06:56 PM
Sometimes Max is worth a million.
Read this, apropos what I call the bipartisan Great Convergence on Iraq:
http://maxspeak.org/mt/archives/002719.html#more
The function of the Democratic Party from the standpoint of elites is to channel dissent into support for elite discourse. In the present context, the framework for such cooptation is advice against "precipitous" withdrawal from Iraq. The alternative to such a policy is continued, open-ended, mucking around.A secondary objective is to prevent a complete meltdown of the Republican Party by entangling Democrats in the purported phase-down of U.S. involvement. The meltdown implied by the continued stubbornness of the Bush White House would unbalance the American two-party duopoly, a development which would strengthen dissent among Democrats and widen the space for third parties and for more basic criticism of U.S. foreign policy.
