Read This

E is on to something. Read it. He's about half right.

As Obama and Edwards have won big big big with the rhetoric of change and promises to buck the old way of the Democratic Party, Huckabee has represents an anti-establishment Republican. His charisma is remarkably Obama-like. He's young, he's an outsider. For grassroots Republicans, he's clearly disconnected from a presidential administration and republican mainstream that has sandbagged party popularity for the upcoming race and stabbed evangelicals in the back by failing to produce results on any number of social issues. This makes, for grassroots Republicans, Huckabee just as "electable" in a general election as a Rudy Giuliani or a Mitt Romney or a John McCain.

Okay he's more than half right... but he still has to ditch that Obama-as-grassroots-populist description. I think Obama is on the other side of a possible realignment that E seems to have his finger on.

I also don't know if "it all starts in the 60s". The threads of history or so tangled it's hard to make the argument quite as succinct as that but still... I think the kid has a point.

Here's the deal. Call them what you will but "religious conservatives" in the Republican party and "economic populists" among the Democrats constitute what I perceive to be real political "center" in America. The next few election cycles may bring about a major realignment where you see the emergence of something very like a New Deal/Religious Right coalition on one side and a Wall Street Imperialist/Yuppie Left coalition on the other side. I think there are signs of this in both parties for various reasons. But it all comes down to class.

What makes it hard to see in this election is the continued ascendancy of consensus elites like Obama and McCain and the rest of the Broderite Unity '08 crowd.

But there is a storm brewing out there. You can see it in the appeal of Democrats like Jim Webb, a little bit in John Edwards's late populist pose, and yes, in the Huckabee insurgency... and a little bit in the Paultards...although I think they are a special case since they are an unholy blend of Right wing nuts and Yuppie douchebags. But I think you'll see all sorts of unlikely pairings in this vein before things begin to coalesce.

It's going to be a very interesting next decade or so. How much longer until we're rid of Bush?