No, of course they don't express it - they are not communicators.
I really believe the Dems as a party are finished because their leaders stopped caring, a long time ago, about their own rank and file party members. They place too much emphasis on seizing power instead of problem solving.
They also seem to reject, absolutely, a bottom up model of thinking. Everything with them comes from the top down.
The Republican Party seems very different to me. It does not reject the ideas of its members. Nor does it function solely from a top down model. And, it seems to have more of a core belief system, with a sharper focus on the issues and problems confronting us.
The Dem Party seems limited to only selling to voters the idea that the GOP leader currently in power should be out. There is never a vote "FOR" emphasis in that Dem Party, probably because, as the article points out, the Dem Party has no message.
By 2012, I don't think there will even be a "Dem Party" anymore. But, I believe there will be a number of smaller, new political parties -- much like the way specialty magazines and cable tv have now totally segmented a marketplace once dominated by a few general interest periodicals (like LIFE) and network tv. No more though. POlitics will eventually catch up to that new model. And, the Dems will rarely win an election when it happens. Much like now.
Interesting article. A long read, but, a big picture.
Hey Rappaport..... try the dems solution.....Swedish taxes on Ethiopian wages.
The Republicans meanwhile stand for:
shrinking the size of governmentcutting federal spendingdefunding agencies like the NEApromoting pro-life candidatesstemming the tide of illegal immigrationupholding the Second Amendment from left-wing gun-grabbersupholding the First Amendment freedom of political advertising for all
winning the War on Terror.
At this rate, both parties may be dinosaurs by 2050.
Rush Limbaugh has been saying the liberals have no real substance for some time. He is right and the author of this article is right.
I found it interesting Republican Jewish intellectuals and supporters are described by the main stream press as "neocons." When almost every hitter and contributor to this new change in this article has a Jewish surname, no mention is made.
IMHO the glue that binds all the liberal elites is an intense dislike for traditional values and mores and a marked antipathy or barely restrained tolerance for religious belief. We are in an undeclared culture war and the outcome is yet to be determined.
"They place too much emphasis on seizing power instead of problem solving."
Yup - I left the Democratic Party when I came to the realization that their lust for power trumped any love they had for this nation.
Good article too.
I agree, summer. But with one caveat:
Over the past four years, nay all the way back to 1993, the Dem's have sought to keep, retake, overcome, whatever, the power base in Washington for the purposes of raising taxes and to "punish" the rich, while shielding the foibles of the standard bearer from public scrutiny.
Fine, we've broken their hold on the legislature -- now how do we get them out of the universities and the media?
As the old union bosses and factional leaders who dominated the Democratic Party in the 20th century file into the FleetCenter this week, waving signs and hooting for their heroes, be sure to take a long, last look.At least the Steelworkers, The Auto Makers and the rest of the union guys had the guts to prevail in a war. This Soros funded 527 Deaniac crew is going to sink our ship if the country tries to depend on them in wartime. I can't imagine a worse force to unleash in a country that is fighting for its future against an implacable foe.The Democratic Party of the machine age, so long dominant in American politics, could be holding its own Irish wake near Boston's North End. The power is already shifting -- not just within the party, but away from it altogether. By the time this election year ends, George Soros will have contributed more than $13 million to the independent political groups known as 527's. (The term is shorthand for the section of the tax code that makes them legal.) For this reason, Republicans insist that the 74-year-old Soros, who may become the largest single political contributor in history, has resolved to buy the Democratic Party.
Uh-huh. And all this big-money entrepreneurship goes to fund exactly those ideas that drive lunch-bucket Dems away from the party in the first place. The Dems can do one of two things: Drop the gay agenda and the abortion agenda, and lose the radicals. Or embrace the radical agenda and lose the middle class. You can't parse that difference.
A couple of observations:
The goal, instead, is to find the equivalent of these 1960's political models for a faster-moving online world.
This line cracked me up. The whole premise of looking at the future of the Democratic Party was shattered by this statement. They are always looking back (i.e. the old playbook. This is why you see the party trying to make gay issues a civil rights issue.
Another comment I found funny was the view of the conservative movement ideas.
Their money spawned academic proposals, some of which, like privatized Social Security or missile defense, were so far beyond the mainstream of their time as to be considered ludicrous
This gives you a flavor of how the left views sensible ideas. Chile has had a very successful privatized social security system for years. Why would this idea ever be considered "ludicrous" in this country? As for missle defense, would you not do whatever is humanly possible to protect the country from nuclear destruction? Show me where that concept was ever an absurd idea. To make these people even look more like idiots, missle defense is in place today and working!
There were several reference made to the "right wing". Not once was the words "Left Wing" ever used. I realize this is to be expected, but I still find it funny.
Finally, money seemed to be the over riding theme to solving the Democrats/Lefts problems. This is no surprise being that they do this in every policy proposal.
Rush Limbaugh is a great example of how money does not insure success. He started his program on a shoestring and succeeded. It was his ideas and his presentation of the news that generated his success not millions of dollars in investment from NY or Silicon Valley venture capitalists. Where is Air America today??? This point should keep the left awake at night.
Overall, I think there is some optimism to be gained from this article, but also a wake up call for Conservatives to take our movement to the next level.
OOps. I kind of feel like an idiot myself when I made the comment that not once did the article refer to the "Left Wing". It is in the title. However, I did not see it mentioned in the article. Perhaps my hypersensitivity.
The reasons that the People dispatched the Democrats in 1994 have not changed.
But the Peoples' belief in the Republicans as change agents was never solidified, and is now fading fast.
Deservedly.
We have never had a period when both major parties were exhausted and ready for replacement at the same time.
Until now.
The American Crisis, Part II.
>>By 2012, I don't think there will even be a "Dem Party" anymore.
THe ultra-liberal Scandinavia countries seem to all hit a stopping point. Probably when they've maximized pilfering the country's wealth, and not because they've run out of spending outlets.
They need some capitalism to pay for their socialism, but I can't see any of them going backwards (disassembling socialism).
Milton Friedman observed that economic freedom is a necessary part of general freedom, and it's too bad our Founding Fathers did not capture it in the Bill of Rights.
The Dems survive on the wealth produced by capitalism and it feeds their power. Looking back at Clinton's legacy - his major accomplishments - welfare reform, the economy, and NAFTA, were all surprises - since they were all Republican ideas (As for the economy - the Reagan leftovers helped, but Clinton was the first Dem to discard Keynes monetary policy and Newt's Congress kept him in check)
All the Dims need to do ...is enforce the country's borders, support concealed carry aboard planes, support private management of one's retirement goals and objectives, create a flexible public/private health care system easy for an individual and a provider to segue in and out of as it meets/does'nt meet their needs, abolish the sixteenth ammendment and use a tariffs system to provide federal funding, and re-establish the Senate as it was meant to function as elected by their state's legislaures......its easy enough if they really WANT to lead....they PREFER to control.
The one thing they will go for is socialized medicine, the only problem with that is, about the time they start really spending money on getting the idea sold, the countries who have instituted socialized medicine will be conceding that their system is bankrupt and they can no longer sustain it.
If these people actually believed in anything they would spend their money on the actual causes instead of attempting to gain power to direct government money to their causes. The problems they worry about could be wiped out with even half the money they are currently spending.
What it boils down to, is they hate religion and they hate religious people. It's faith they want to wipe out.
As long as single welfare-mothers, athiests, screeching feminists, abortion enthusiasts, Hollywood drunks, condom throwers, government-addicted minority "victims", gold-chained union thugs, France-appeasers, pornographers, and all the rest of society's losers, parasites, and weirdos constitute the Democrat "base", the Democrat Party will never be viable on a national (or even statewide) level.
The fact is that normal, traditional American families look at that Democrat base and ask themselves, "Why would we vote along with THEM?" To do so would be like taping 'kick me' signs on their own backs. Of course, there are still many normal, working, traditional Americans who DO (inexplicably) vote along with those core Democrats listed above, but as this article points out their numbers are shrinking every day. Traditional America is waking up.
All the Republicans need to do is relentlessly and mercilessly continue to show the American public the faces of the Democrat Party.
Between March 3 and June 26...
The Bush campaign spent $59.6 million on ads
Kerry's campaign spent $56 million
Outside liberal/progressive groups spent $38.6 million
These leftie 527's are almost MATCHING Kerry's campaign spending.
Per USA Today...http://www.usatoday.com/news/politicselections/nation/president/2004-07-11-kerry-ads_x.htm
This conference convinced me that younger Democrat operatives who do not hold office themselves are extremely frustrated with Terry McAuliffe and the DNC. They long for a more ideologically focused party with a real meaty policy agenda that they can rally around. At the same time, you have the Rob Steins who are convinced that the conservative ascendancy in America has been all tactics, money, and organization. They think all the left needs to do is emulate what conservatives did, starting with the formation of the Heritage Foundation in the late 1970s. They don't think it has anything to do with ideology or policies. So you see the millions spent by Moveon.org and other left groups this year that do not indicate any kind of positive policy agenda, just bashing Bush. They think if they can spend as much money as the Republicans they can win. They do not have a clue about what really moves voters in America.
self ping