Posted on 12/19/2004 2:31:45 AM PST by RWR8189
THE big question for pro fessional Democrats right now is this: Can the party that invented Big Government become an effective critic of Big Government? It's the best, indeed perhaps the only, path to a Democratic renaissance. The Democratic Party finds itself in a terrible predicament. At a time when national security is paramount, the Democratic Party finds its core strength among those who don't believe in military solutions to world problems.
Peaceniks represent the Democratic Party's core strength, but they're also the party's most profound weakness — because American voters who want a strong leader won't buy a candidate acceptable to the peaceniks.
So where can Democrats turn? They can shift their attention to the fiscal corruption that has taken hold of the Republican Party in Congress.
As 2005 begins, the GOP will have controlled both Houses of Congress for a decade (excepting an 18-month blip from 2001-2002 when liberal Republican-turned-independent Jim Jeffords joined with Democrats to give them the reins of power in the Senate).
But Republicans won majorities in the House and Senate in the 1994 elections because they ran as reformers against the corruption of the entrenched Democratic majority on Capitol Hill. They were supposedly the party of less government, less regulation, less intrusion. They would be in Washington, but not of Washington
(Excerpt) Read more at nypost.com ...
Bump
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we must free ourselves from cynicism
Well I am a boomer and I am shocked by how cynical my generation has become. We must fight this tendency; we must not become like the Europeans. IT maybe too late. It is one of the reasons that I find Bush so refreshing. Young people need to know the systems works. It is a worthy assperation believe me. American renewal start with basic things, the sort of ideals we have alway mouthed: libery, freedom decency opportunity, justice, transparency. It is all of a piece. The future is there for the taking, we just need to take it in hand.
We're not the only ones suspecting corruption...
Conservatives Have Been Assimilated. Resistance Is Futile.
Well, Mike, don't feel alone.
I'm 52 and have been very cynical my entire life. (at least since 15)
That has never left me, unlike my youth which vashished somewhere along the way...Never quit.
Still, a future Democratic leader who can find a way to talk about big-government Republican corruption without promising more of the same could bring his party out of the wilderness into which it has wandered.
What do ya think, Hillary? You ain't got a hair!
If the Democrats ever become the party of small government and low taxes, then they might end their 40 years in the desert. I wouldn't hold my breath though waiting for the makeover to happen in my lifetime.
The problem, as I see it, is that the Republicans are giving the Democrats what they want; CRF, the Homeland Security Department, an Intelligence Czar, etc. No one is saying, "No."
That was supposed to be CFR.
Exclusive of the menand women whom you serve with what do you think is the depth of patriotism in your age group?
They are certainly more laid back about patriotism. However, I think that with age and maturity, most are coming around.
Certainly my wife (who is also 24) and I are very patroitic as are my brother (21) and his wife who is 22. It really is hit and miss right now, but that is an improvement from when I graduated with them as well.
It is not a good trend that at their earliest ages they are given whatever the teacher's vision of America is. It is up to the parents (I had great Parents by the way) to make sure the kid sees if the teacher is full of it or not....
Podhoretz is a putz grasping at strawmen. The title should read Democratic corruption & GOP impotence. From Social Security to Sandy Berger. Where'e the barf alert?
As it is, abortion has had terrible political consequences for the Dems.
Undoubedly, most of the aborted babies would have grown up to be voting democrats.
The Democrats are the party of Socialism at full-speed whatever the cost (with lots of perks for special interests). There is a danger that the Republicans will become the party of Socialism at half-speed -- giving voters most of what the Democrats promise only more efficiently with better bookkeeping. I get mixed signals, some incouraging and some discouraging. That there is talk about privitizing part of Social Security and the Assault Weapons Ban was allowed to expire -- that was encouraging. I found the Campaign Finance Reform and the education bill the President supported with Ted Kennedy to be a dissapointment. I know there has to be some give and take, but the Republicans will have to fight the temptation of some to become the Democrats Lite.
My cold is making my brain foggier than usual and I am forgetting how to spell. Oh well.
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