Pragmatist Hope

Think back to a time when the Clinton administration's "triangulation" and free-trade policies looked to many on the left like the primary threat to a humane approach to political economy, when controversy about presidential lying had to do with adultery and not a ghastly war, and when political insurgents looked to a candidate other than Ralph Nader to carry the banner of a progressive politics. That candidate was Bill Bradley, whose only success in the 2000 primaries was to lure voters with postgraduate degrees away from Al Gore. But unlike earlier "new politics" efforts, notably Eugene McCarthy's 1968 race, the failed Bradley campaign disappeared without leaving a trace on American politics.