View From a Height

"Neo-Progressives"

Michael O'Hanlon, a childhood friend of mine, hails from the Brookings Institution, and specializes in foreign and defense policy. While pretty much toeing a traditional liberal line, he's still one of the more thoughtful Democrats out there, not given to Red-State bashing. He really would like to see the party rejuvenate itself. O'Hanlon's latest Lesson for Democrats is a start, but it falls far short of what's needed.

O'Hanlon rightly credits big ideas with providing the intellectuel heft necessary to sustain a governing majority, even if he isn't exactly in love with the current governing ideas. He calls on Democrats to come up with their own "neo-progressive" movement, to produce their own big ideas. But the list he produces is disappointing:

• A long-term strategy to win the war on terror. O'Hanlon calls, essentially, for more of the government-to-government pressure and welfare that has already failed. And linking of terrorism to economic, rather than political, freedom, isn't likely to produce either results or big ideas.
  
• Energy policy. True "Energy independence" is an economic pipe-dream, and making this a major plank ignores the fact that our economy as a whole is less dependent on foreign oil than 25 years ago. How else could we sustain a recovery with $50 a barrel oil? And the true path to opportunity for 3rd world farmers isn't biomass fuels. It's the admission of high-yield GMO crops that the NGOs have been waging a propaganda war against.
  
• Training and equipping African militaries to stop civil conflict Again, this is a pretty small big idea. In the absence of political reform, the mere maintaining of street order just makes it easier for corrupt dictatorships. A true "big idea" would be a comprehensive plan for Africa to join the 21st century.
  
• A major child survival initiative Child survival rates are more closely linked to economic development than anything else. The "big idea" O'Hanlon is grasping for here is how to raise third-world living standards, not how to send more NGO doctors overseas.
  

Most of these ideas have already been tried, or really aren't very big. What conservatives have isn't a piecemeal set of projects and plans. They have a comprehensive ideology (economic growth, political freedom) that points the way to solve many of these issues. It's good to see someone trying, but if O'Hanlon is serious about a "neo-progressive" movement, he'll have to do better than this.