Friday, November 05, 2004
The Republican reality
To restore their party, Democrats must cease their reflexive dismissal of all conservative ideas, and instead try to conduct some analysis not colored by partisan political instinct, perhaps forming some well conceived alternative ideas. The Backseat Philosopher offers a good place to start:
Here are some arguments that are being made that the Democratic party has simply not responded to, in the larger sense of the word "response":
Whatever the UN was, might have been, or should be, it now isn't. Genocidal
tyrannies are on the Human Rights commision. Saddam Hussein funneled over 1.7
billion dollars to various decision makers and world leaders to weaken his
sanctions program. One out of every three votes is about Israel. Until the UN is
significantly reformed, you shouldn't take its decisions seriously.
If we view 1000 or even 10,000 dead soldiers as unacceptable, we will never be
able to fight a real war again.
Proportional response with no preemption allows the other side to set the paceRead the whole thing.
of the battle
2 Comments:
By 
, at
Fri Nov 05, 12:54:00 PM:
It's important to have two strong parties, and no doubt the pendulum will swing back toward the Democrats at some point (after all, it looked rather bleak for the Republicans after the 1964 election, and for the Democrats after 1984), especially for a party that did garner 48% of the votes in a presidential election. What the Democrats must do is recapture a good part of the center. How the center is defined is a tough question, of course, but I would still venture that there is a solid 45-60% or so of the electorate that falls outside the extreme core of either the Democrats or the Republicans.
What those people are looking for is not northeastern elitism, but for something they can relate to. Bill Clinton touched that core, but so did Ronald Reagan, and so, to a lesser (but still important) extent, has George W. Bush. The Democrats have to simplify their message, move away from their belief that the government can solve all problems, and not let their extreme wing scare the center, which apparently it did compared to the extreme core of the Republican Party.
Let's look at history, though, before writing that the Republicans will control things for the next 40 years or that the Democrats will fade from the picture. Any time that happens, there is a backlash, and then the pendulum swings back. Why? Because the center won't put up with bad decisions by any party for long, and parties tend to misstep when they get cocky.
The Centrist
By 
Charlottesvillain, at
Fri Nov 05, 01:16:00 PM:
I cannot imagine anyone serious predicting that the Republicans will control things for 40 years. They must guard against the complacency that the legislative majority is inclined to fall into. Most in Congress, at the end of the day, are self-interested politicians, and highly suceptible to hubris and greed.
No, I think it quite likely that they will forget history and overstep their bounds and become vulnerable in a surprisingly short amount of time.
