A new article in The New Republic voices my views so perfectly, I wish I could have written it myself. I’m proud that Eliot Spitzer is NY state’s attorney general; he really has his head on his shoulders. In fact, I was so impressed by this article that I went immediately to his website after reading it to see if he had any internship opportunities in his office.

As an economics major, I find myself too often explaining to liberal Democrats that my field isn’t inherently politically conservative, just that economists make too many simplifying assumptions. I think it’s time that the Democratic party show that perfect markets are not the enemy, but the solution, and that the Bush administration is actually working against that goal.

Kerry needs to embrace and uphold the logic in that article, not only in practice, but also in his campaign. I think politicians shy away from that sort of logic, because they feel it runs counter to the populist message that many Democrats secretly want to have. And in fact, it’s probably a good thing for the candidate to spend some time developing sweeping statements and bold stands and a “personality” and all that other political stuff. The fact of the matter is, though, the 10% of the population that’s really listening to the rhetoric now has a clue, and they’ll respond favorably to this sort of reasoning.

Spitzer really has his head on his shoulders. I hope the rest of the party is smart enough to listen to him.

Posted on March 22nd, 2004 by Lee
Filed under: Uncategorized