Eric Alterman Quotes
For the past eight years, the right has been better at working the refs. Now the left is learning how to play the game.
Alterman, Eric. Why We're Liberals: A Political Handbook for Post-Bush America. Viking, 2008.
The text was actually written by John Kenneth Galbraith who was writing speeches for Stevenson.
At the time, the Republicans held the House of Representatives, but not the Senate or the Presidency. By popular vote, even the House elections had the majority voting for the Democrats, but the gerrymandering gave the Republicans more seats. A minority of the minority Republicans were Tea Party Republicans—ultra conservatives who would not compromise but who intimidated other Republicans by threatening to run candidates against them in primary elections. The result was that the Tea Party Republicans—a minority of the minority could block almost any legislation and did. That Congress passed less legislation than any in American history including the “Do Nothing Congress” of the Truman era.
This is a fascinating quotation in that it was true in Hayes’ tenure and at other times in American History, but at other times it was not at all the case. Two notable examples were the administrations of Thomas Jefferson and those of George W. Bush. Voters claim to not like partisanship but in many eras they do not punish the majority for their lack of bipartisanship.
Eric Alterman is an American historian, journalist, author, media critic, blogger and educator. He is a CUNY Distinguished Professor of English and Journalism at Brooklyn College and the author of eleven books. From 1995 to 2020, Alterman was "The Liberal Media" columnist for The Nation. He is now a contributing writer there, and at The American Prospect where he writes the "Altercation" newsletter.
