Control isn't an issue with me. I just want what is best for my country. I have certain values that I look for in the person I give my vote to but you didn't answer my question . If the "center" keeps pulling away from the right and embraces the left , after a period of time, what will be different between either party?
Oh! OK>>>>> For the answer to that, you have to understand the historical pendulum that continues to swing back and forth. The two parties, and yes we have a two party system because it works and we don't want to change it. Anyway the two parties actually do seem similar at different times in the cycle that repeats, over and over again.
When they get too close, they get ragged by their base and move dramatically away from each other to add distance. But because of coalition building, one party always tries to steal some from the other. When they need swing voters they tend to merge a bit to get them. "Campaign center and govern right". That is the norm. Then they move apart.
It is all about winning.
Politics and principles do not ever mix well together. This is why some of the more political savvy folks around here get so irritated with what we call the unappeasable. So you call us Bush bots, or whatever.
It's frustrating to see what has happened here, and really this entire year has been a mess. All of it is unnecessary and should not happen, but it has happened time and time again and will in the future.
I've had my say, and got it all out of my system, which was necessary for my blood pressure. :-)
You will never hear this from pundits, because they make their money selling books and making speeches. If they layed it all out on the table, it would all be so simple and they would be out of a job!
Politics is a dance, and as I said earlier, a art form. It is the art of winning and losing while compromising and giving and taking.
Power goes to the one that hold the political capital.
These pundits I watch, and I see Krauthammer and Ingram doing their thing on FOX right now, are largely responsible for the art of politics to become warfare which is the result of a political failure. This sells more books and gets more appearance fees and speeches.
It is how the game is played these days. It is why Bush appears to have miscalculated the reaction. Who the hell knows what these idiots will do?
I quit buyin their books when I figured this new game out.
You can't have 200 William Buckley's out there beating on you to sell books and appearances, and be able to please them.
Bush does not try to do that, and he should not! A few of them is one thing, but we are beyond a few. Combined with the twenty four hour news cycle and televised senate and house, we have altered the politics.
Just going to have to learn to accept it if you are going to go into this business. But it does not mean I have to like it, and Harriet Miers deserved better. I will not forget what they did. Nor will others that I know are just as upset about this as I am.
Funny thing, we are all over 50 and pushin 60 for the most part. Myself included.