Reply #418: I'm responding to the comment you made about Alter

[sabrina 1]

wanting to keep the coalition together ... he supported Bush's war. I asked how that worked to keep the coalition together. Of course that was in 2003 when there was a united Left and no such thing as 'action/movement liberals' or 'pragmatic/idealistic liberals'.

And no, not all 'action liberals' (not that I accept that label, but it's Alter's) were against the war. There were plenty of Democrats, including in Congress, who supported it AND voted for it. Those politicians paid a price politically later on. Hillary, eg, might have won the nomination had she not been a war supporter. There was no way I would have ever supported anyone who supported that massive crime.

So, Alter views himself as an 'action liberal'. I would agree. Action is great when it's good action. Bush was probably an 'action conservative'. But I don't think any decent human being would think that that was a good thing. Movement conservatives, otoh, at least got some things right, like the Iraq War.