[Cross-posted earlier this morning at The Drum Major Institute, which you should definitely read every single day!]
"I'm socially liberal but fiscally conservative."
Hear this much? As Schwarzenegger's victory in supposedly-blue California and Mike Huckabee's recent populist-driven, expectations-beating 2nd place in the Iowa straw poll both indicate, progressives are still incredibly vulnerable on economic issues. Simplistic as it is, and seemingly regardless of how many bridges and levees collapse, anti-tax messages still have amazing traction with the American public.
To start to turn back this kind of thinking, we need a good, positive story about the economy to tell. We'll get there. But before we get to people saying "I'm socially liberal and fiscally progressive," we need to first budge folks off the dime. When we start to hear "I'm socially liberal and fiscally, I don't know what I am, but I'm definitely not a conservative," we'll be making progress.
To that end, for your debating with the conservative relatives pleasure, after the flip you will find a grab-bag of a few points on why fiscal conservatism just doesn't work, with tons of linky goodness:
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