The recent much-discussed report on “Rightwing Extremism” by the Department of Homeland Security has raised a very important issue of definition: What precisely is right-wing “political extremism” and how does it differ from other concepts like “the radical right” or “hard-right conservatism”?
Read the entire memo here.

It’s no secret that arguments for economic inequality depend on two different kinds of rationales. One is simply that of efficiency: permitting a significant amount of wealth accumulation provides capital for investment and growth, while also creating incentives for hard work and innovation. But the other, which is powerful in our essentially moralistic land, is moral: those who create wealth and improve economic productivity deserve, via their hard work, talent, and willingness to bear risks, deserve a higher standard of living than their sluggish, mediocre, and risk-averse fellow-citizens.
Read the entire memo here.

Now that the “spin war” over the size and authenticity of the “tea parties” is over, Democrats should look at the protests more carefully and consider how best to respond.
To begin, the most important fact to note is that there were actually several quite distinct agendas being pursued during the events.
Read the entire memo here.

Obama’s ambitious budget has profoundly reassured many Democrats that he is indeed the progressive he appeared to be during the 2008 campaign. But there is still widespread concern about his continued desire to achieve some degree of “bipartisanship.”
Read the entire memo here.

The word of the week in the chattering classes seems to be “polarization.” Based largely on a new Pew Research poll showing the gap between Barack Obama’s approval ratings among Rs and Ds being higher than those of six previous presidents at the same point in their tenures, conservative observers, and some progressives, are happily burying “bipartisanship” as a strategy associated with the administration.
Read the entire memo here.

By Andrew Levison
The new report from the Center for American Progress, The State of American Political Ideology 2009 provides a more finely crafted overall picture of the current balance between support for conservative and liberal-progressive principles in the American electorate than any recent study. As a result, it establishes a vital starting point for the development of progressive and Democratic strategy.

Read the entire memo here.

It has taken several days for the full implications of Obama’s budget and message to sink in among conservatives and Republicans, but now the surprise has passed and the gloves are coming off.
The conservative hope that Obama might actually be the timid, dithering, “split the difference” centrist that some progressives feared he was has now evaporated. On the contrary, the scope of his ambition to be a solidly progressive Roosevelt-style president makes him appear as a genuine threat–not just for committed Republicans, but to a substantial group beyond.
Read the entire memo here.

In an article by Peter Beinart, he argues that Obama might be presiding over an end to–or at least a pause in–the culture wars of the last couple of decades.
This is actually a proposition that merits its own discussion. Has the Cultural Right begun to run out of steam? Will the economic crisis radically reduce the salience of issues like gay marriage or abortion or church-state separation? Is there something about Barack Obama’s style and substance that tends to calm the cultural waters? And what if any accommodations should Obama or progressives generally make to neutralized culture-based opposition?
Read the entire memo here.

Since taking office, two basic notions about Obama’s political philosophy have become widespread–that he is a “pragmatist” and also an advocate of “bipartisanship.” An extraordinary number of articles and debates have appeared applying these two characterizations to his actions.
Within this broad discussion, Ed Kilgore has made a convincing argument that in Obama’s specific formulation, neither of these two concepts necessarily implies an abandonment of the liberal-progressive goals Obama expressed during the campaign.
Read the entire memo here.

It’s no secret that the groups that compose the Democratic coalition have dramatically different perspectives on many issues. But on one key topic they do agree. Democrats–whether in the Obama administration, Congress or the nation–recognize that they face an unparalleled set of strategic challenges today. As a result, they urgently need to develop more productive ways to debate political strategy within the Democratic coalition.
The challenge is to figure out how to conduct intra-Democratic debates in a way that doesn’t end up in a shouting match but rather clarifies the points of contention and achieves the maximum degree of collaboration and cooperation.
Read the entire memo here.