Ideology, says Lerner, is failing us. The way to move beyond the paralysis that now impoverishes national politics is to have a fresh conversation about values-moral and spiritual values. But that doesn't take Lerner into the psychotherapies of New Age spirituality. His quest for a new politics of meaning has led him back to his own Jewish faith. The controversy demonstrated again how difficult it is for the media to talk about politics beyond the usual categories of power.
Moral language is suspect of being either flaky or a code for religious sectarianism.
The hype and caricature surrounding Lerner's phrase pre-empted a substantial discussion about what the politics of meaning really means. And now both Clinton and Lerner have disavowed each other. We shall have to wait for that substantial discussion of the politics of meaning until next year, when Lerner's book on the subject will appear. It is the foundation for Michael Lerner's thinking and activism, and it roots him in deep and solid ground, providing the transcendent ethic any truly moral politics needs, and supplying the spiritual energy any movement needs in accepting the task of transformation. WHEN Michael Lerner speaks, those who listen learn.