Outside view: Emerging Democrat minority

UPI ^ | 11.24.03 | Horace Cooper

[Desron13]

"In November 2003 in nearly two-thirds of the country -- the areas that some Democrats deride as "flyover land" -- Democrats face significant political headwinds that will be nearly impossible to overcome. A victory plan in 2004 predicated on an agenda of pacifism, tax hikes and counter-cultural liberalism sets up all the needed elements for a perfect storm.

Hehehe...Perfect Storm...hehehe....

[Hank Rearden]

You go right ahead - support ever-expanding socialist government in the name of political expediency and keeping your guys in power over our lives. Don't worry about the founding principles of our nation or even what's left of the Constitution.

Just keep propping up Big Stupid Republican Government. That's all that counts. Nothing else matters.

[Coop]

That's all that counts. Nothing else matters.

Facts certainly don't seem to matter, not when there's blowhard rhetoric to throw around.

[Katya]

In some cases it's not so much a boon for the Republicans, but for George Bush. I can speak ancecdotally, living in the peoples republic of Maryland. A few committed Takoma Park type lefties, have gone soft on Bush. Their interests are based on a pragmatism that since 9-11 the country has veered on a different course, than any other time in history. They don't particularly like any of the dementocrat hopefuls, and don't think this is the time to institute any sweeping changes.
Not that I think Maryland will send it's electoral votes to Bush, but it's perhaps emblematic that some of them are actually THINKING.

[eureka!]

"but it's perhaps emblematic that some of them are actually THINKING."

That, if true, is a very good thing. Very good.

And yes, this bill is more a W promise and delivery than a GOP issue. It was going to happen, had to happen, unfortunately. Better that the issue is resolved, the costs known, than to have a later Rat plan promising the whole enchilada with no restraints, IMHO....

[Better to Be Lucky Than Good]

Hope you don't take this the wrong way, but you make your points extremely well.

[Maria S]

Great picture! Anyone who lives in Texas has seen a similar sunset (or sunrise?).

[little jeremiah]

Great article - very cheering!

[pfflier]

there needs to be a real examination among the party members as to why issues important to core Democrat constituencies prove to be losers nationally.

Shhh! Don't tell them our little secret...the sixties ended 40 years ago.

[Reverend Bob]

Always enjoy your analysis -- especially as we seem to agree about 95% of the time.

Personally, I have mixed emotions about many of Bush's domestic agenda items. Like you though, I see exactly what he's up to. Patronage was a key part of the Democrats success from Roosevelt on. That ended in 1994, but it's taken nine years for the new reality to sink in -- and for Republicans to start behaving like the majority party they are. Bush is a key factor in this change and he's busy party-building in a way that few modern presidents would have ever considered, let alone attempted.

When I have qualms about aspects of the Medicare or Energy bills (and I do), I console myself by listening to the lamentations of those who've been cast into outer darkness. If Kennedy and Boxer et al seem shriller than normal, it's because they know exactly what Bush is up to. He's beating them at their own game and further splintering their own battered coalition in the process. I mean, really... The AARP signing on to a Republican bill and having the rent-a-mobs turned on them? I must be dreaming!

My only concern is that, in behaving like a majority party, we may also lose sight of what we stood for in the first place. Some pork and politics-as-usual is both unavoidable and necessary, but I would like to see more "smaller government" initiatives during a second term, if only to differentiate us from the Democrats in still another way.

[section9]

There is always a risk that we shall become as we were in the 1870's and 1880's, the party of a new Gilded Age, once idealistic, and now grown fat, arrogant, and corrupt on the coin of victories.

Lincoln, TR, Ike, Reagan, and Bush the Younger must remain our North Stars. Each in his turn spent more than he wanted to. Each in his turn has left the nation in far better shape than when he found it. But they remained, at their core, idealists. When we lose the idealism that animated the Goldwater and Reagan campaigns, we will have become as liberals: soulless and corrupt.

Be Seeing You,

Chris

[Southack]

Bump for Horace's fine insight in Post #24.

Other additional facts to consider are that the Democrats offer no new ideas, policies, or plans of their own. Likewise, demographics favor a Conservative swing (Baby Boomers are finally becoming first time grandparents, the most Conservative Age of all), as do national security interests (this is a post 9/11 world, after all).

These reasons are why Schwarzenegger won in California, a state that is overwhelmingly registered as Democrats. After all, Arnold had a plan to repeal the car tax to help the economy, reform California's workmen's comp system to lure back businesses, and audit the state's budget to bring back fiscal sanity.

In constrast, neither Democrat (Davis or Bustamante) could say what they'd do to fix California's problems if the voters chose them.

NEWSFLASH: the voters didn't select them. Instead, the voters selected the man with the plan.

Now multiply that result * 50 as Republicans continue to tout a successful anti-terror war, privatizing Medicare and Social Security, tax cuts, faith based charities, more bans on abortions, school choice vouchers (ooops, equal opportunity scholarships), and the construction of an ABM system.

[NovemberCharlie]

Look on the bright side. If the Democrats continue their headlong slide into oblivion, there will be a vacuum on the political stage. The old Republican alliance of paleo- and neoconservatives, robbed of a common enemy, could splinter and those could be the two new extremes of debate.

[Hank Rearden]

I've thought about that too; it's pretty much the only hope for pulling back from the Republican/DemocRat Big Government, Big Spending socialist abyss.

[Fledermaus]

Ever notice how all the Dems advise "finding a message". What ever happened to principle and firm beliefs?

At least the GOP pretends to use those to further their ideals. Oh wait, Medicare drug plan, farm bills, pork spending, more money down the hole of education spending, no reform, bloated bureaucracies...

Nevermind!

[Fledermaus]

He just gave Seniors a huge entitlement, which might lead to Republican control of the senior and older Boomer voters. This may be economically unsound, but it is electorally ingenious.

Big deal. This, over time, will be a pox on the GOP as they themselves have to do what you described the Dems as doing...consistently having to pay off that voting block to remain in power.

So we've traded one monster for another. I don't call that progress.

[rdb3]

If the Democrats continue their headlong slide into oblivion, there will be a vacuum on the political stage. The old Republican alliance of paleo- and neoconservatives, robbed of a common enemy, could splinter and those could be the two new extremes of debate.

Precisely. As such, the far-Right should be doing everything in their power to kill the Dems by supporting the Pubs. The vacuum you speak of surely is going to happen. The only question is are people wise enough to fill that vacuum with something that they want.

This opportunity does not present itself every day.

[rdb3]

Ever notice how all the Dems advise "finding a message". What ever happened to principle and firm beliefs?

This is not true as far as the Left is concerned. Please see my tagline.

[ABG(anybody but Gore)]

Thank you two for a pair of great finds, and Jane, you're gonna love it!

[Ms. AntiFeminazi]

This ping from 11/25 only showed up in my comments today, 12/4. fyi.