Captain Ed reports on three Democratic elected officials in Kentucky who have switched over to the GOP. As he notes:
Democrats have steadily lost people such as Chuck Hickman and Tommy Sampson, and electoral results have reflected that. In the past three election cycles, Democrats have lost almost 20% of their Senate seats and a big chunk of their House contingent as well. They ran far to the left against a man they painted as the most radically conservative president in American history — and 62 million Americans disagreed with that analysis. They understood that a party hijacked by the Stalin apologists at International ANSWER and the radicals at MoveOn would see Eisenhower as radically conservative, or at least paint him as such in an attempt to grasp power.
In the last election 11% of Democrats voted for Bush. Only 8% of Republicans crossed over for Kerry. GOP voter ID has increased considerably in the last few election cycles, now at parity or above Democratic voter ID. The South has become solidly Republican, including Florida.
The problem is simple: what to the Democrats stand for? In the last election it was “not being Bush.” Even if the Democrats abandon their Ahab-like fixation on the President, it still doesn’t reconcile them with the fact that they no represent an ideology that is completely outside the mainstream of American politics. The more the Democrats try to embrace the “progressive” agenda the worse they do. Rather than moving towards the center, the Democrats are embracing the far left, which is why they ended up in this mess in the first place.
What few moderate Democrats that remain are becoming increasingly isolated in their own party. Until the Democrats grow up and stop blaming their problems on everyone else but themselves, they will continue to be a party marginalized. This country needs a smart and respectable opposition party, and fortunately American politics finds a balance sooner or later. The question that arises is how long it will take the Democrats to realize that their current strategy is a loser?
It’s clear that the Democratic Party is in a funk that’s likely to last most of the next decade, but it’s imperative that the Dems don’t take the bait of those trying to persuade the party that the solution lies in shifting even further to the right. The rightward transformation of the American political spectrum is obvious when our friend Captain Ed can compare the conservative DLC-controlled Democratic Party of 2004 to “Stalin apologists”. It’s also interesting that he evokes the name of Dwight Eisenhower, considering Ike would be well to the left of nearly every prominent Democrat, including John Kerry, in power today, at least on the meat-and-potatoes issues that used to matter before the culture war took center stage.
Even excluding the domestic issues, the Democratic Party which you brand as so contemptibly out of the mainstream has effectively embraced the same position on Iraq as 56% of Americans. It’s hard to see how these figures will diverge unless a miracle occurs and the Iraq war starts going well, but even Bush had to confess yesterday that that ain’t happening anytime soon.
The Democratic Party’s biggest problem is that it’s attempting to embrace every position in order to keep their entire coalition intact, a coalition that includes upper-income suburbanites and lower-income blue collar workers, social liberals and economic liberals and general mishmash of groups who don’t see eye to eye on a number of issues. That makes it difficult to evoke a message that will produce an electoral majority. If John Kerry had visited West Virginia wearing an “Death to Fags” T-shirt, he may have won there….but lost California. The same could be said about trade policy, guns, the war and any number of issues. If the Dems move left in 2008, the culture war-obsessed red states will get even redder. If they move even further right, they are no longer an alternative to the Republican Party and will lose the left.
The only thing likely to save the Democrats is, tragically, the financial ruin of the country that is inevitable with current GOP borrow-and-spend budget practices. Most red states were blue states for decades…and for a reason. They depend upon pork-barrel largesse being made available to them by the taxpayers of modern-day blue states. The GOP’s successful borrow-and-spend vote-getting operation is unsustainable, and when red politicians stop showering cash over Mississippi the way that blue politicians used to in the old political alignment, Mississippi will look for an alternative. The allegiance of Republican voters is being purchased on credit by their party. There is no way this can be sustained.
The problem is simple: what to the Democrats stand for?
Same things as always: fair pay. Equal rights. Civil freedoms. Government and corporate accountability. Sane public spending. Responsible foreign policy. Sustainable use of natural resources. Social policies that work. Protecting America from foes both foreign and domestic.
For some reason those things don’t appeal to a slight majority of Americans. I suspect that will change; the Republican party is going to implode within the next 6 years.
Yes, and the Democrats also stand for puppy dogs and sunshine too.
Maybe the reason that those things don’t appeal to a majority of Americans is because the Democratic concept of “civil freedoms”, “responsible foreign policy”, “sane public spending” and the like don’t match with their intended goals and would actively hurt this country. Of course, as long as the Democrats continue their infantile self-aggrandizement, they won’t have a chance to get their policies enacted — thankfully.
“Infantile self-aggrandizement”?
Is one party more guilty of that than the other? There’s little humility on the part of the Republican Party who constantly claim to “represent the values” of the American people. It’s hard to suggest that line is more humble (or less ambiguous) than the Democratic mantra of “responsible foreign policy” and “sane public spending”.
Certainly you are correct though that the Democrats’ positions on legal representation for the accused, not waging pre-emptive war against an unarmed nation and redirecting budgetary dollars from missions to Mars towards education and health care would “actively hurt this country.” The country is already being systematically decapitated by the wheels currently in motion by the GOP. Ideological tendencies of voters run in cycles, and once we finally get past hating gays and defending our Uzi arsenals, tomorrow’s generation of voters will demand atonement for the sins of their fathers who willed them the current train wreck.
Yes, and the Democrats also stand for puppy dogs and sunshine too.
Look, Jay, it’s not my problem that you’ve chosen to ally yourself with the side of social irresponsibility and corporate plutocracy. If you want to get back on the Light side of the Force, stop voting Republican. The Democratic party stands for good things. The Republican party stands for greed and avarice, behind a smokescreen of busybody moralism.
Maybe you’re a good person, at heart. But the Republican party uses people like you to hide the corruption at the core. Why you would want to be a part of that I’ll never know. Pride, I suppose.
Maybe the reason that those things don’t appeal to a majority of Americans is because the Democratic concept of “civil freedomsâ€, “responsible foreign policyâ€, “sane public spending†and the like don’t match with their intended goals and would actively hurt this country.
Maybe, if that were true. But it’s the Blue states with the longer marriages, the fewer teen pregnancies, the greater economic prosperity, the greater civil freedoms and equality. It’s the Democratic presidents who generally preside over the most beneficial economies and the most responsible government spending. So clearly Democratic policies work.
Well, thanks for proving my point about Democratic hubris.
The values of the Democratic Party just don’t work. The welfare state doesn’t work. The European model produces half the economic growth and twice the umemployment for populations much smaller than that of the United States. The National Health Service in the UK is slowly being forced to allow private hospitals due out of control costs, overworked doctors with low morale, and dramatically increasing wait times. The NHS model is failing in Britain and would be a disaster in the United States.
The environmentalist holy war against DDT has killed more people than Hitler and Stalin combined. Since the idiotic and absolutely unncessaary ban on DDT, 87,750,963 have died of malaria in the Third World. In the time it takes you to read this, 2 more will be added to that tool. 1 needless death every 12 seconds.
Furthermore, if you want to talk about how well Democratic politics work, look no further than Washington DC, which has been a Democratic city since it was founded. DC has the highest murder rate in the country, failing public schools, and the singularly most corrupt government in the country.
Democratic foreign policy? In 1992 we had the Black Hawk Down incident in Mogadishu, which bin Laden himself said marked the point at which he realized the US was nothing more than a paper tiger. In 1993 terrorists with links to both Iraq and al-Qaeda bombed the World Trade Center. The US government treated it like a normal crime. In 1995 al-Qaeda bombed the Khobar Towers. The US did not respond. In 1998 the US embassies in Dar-es-Salaam and Nairobi were bombed. Our response? A cruise missile attack that did nothing other than hit a few tents and a Sudanese aspirin factory. In 2000 the USS Cole was attacked, a direct act of war against the United States. Our response? Nothing.
The Clinton Administration systematically failed to protect this country. From the 9/11 Commission Report:
The policies of the Democratic Party on defense, on spending, on values, on economics, on taxation, on Social Security, on terrorism, on foreign affairs, all represent failed ideas that would actively harm this country. I don’t always agree with the Republicans on many issues, but given the choice between Republican policies and Democratic policies the former are infinitely preferable for the future of this country.
Meanwhile, back on planet Earth….
The worldview embraced by you and most modern Republicans is completely antithetical to the development and sustained success of civilized society. Nearly every successful nation on the globe has become that way through the recognition that the riches afforded through marketplace competition have to be tempered with significant public sector institutions that do what the marketplace cannot. Historically, this formula has not been achieved in accordance to you and your party’s thesis of an incredible-shrinking common good. Citing a single example of a liberal urban center (DC) with alot of problems is hardly convincing. Three decades worth of allegiance to the Republicans doesn’t seem to have helped the people of Vicksburg and Tupelo, Mississippi, either, so will you concur that that’s representative of the dysfunction of GOP orthodoxy?
Considering that the European nations you disparage as train wrecks are globally respected as having the highest standard of living in the world, pretty much everything else you say has to be dismissed as similarly bubbleheaded blather from the keyboard of someone hopelessly married to a dysfunctional ideology.
I think that the Republican ascendancy owes more to the decadence and moral failure of the far left, which currently has nowhere to go except the Democratic Party, than to any particular vision or principle on the GOP side.
Sure, I’m glad that the President was re-elected, considering the alternative, and that his majority in Congress was bolstered. But what of positive worth, as opposed to negative avoidance, have we gained? Well, there is one — a willingness (probably) to see the godawful mess in Iraq through to a successful end. And that’s about all I can think of.
In other areas, the Republicans have shown what they’re made of, and it’s not attractive. Accusations of irresponsible spending in aid of vote buying seem to me quite on target. And with a few notable exceptions, Republicans have not located their spinal columns with regard to fixing our demented encouragement of huge levels of illegal and legal immigration. Despite overwhelming opposition from U.S. citizens (as opposed to corporations), most at least passively support the President’s bid for a “stealth” amnesty for illegals.
Power corrupts, unless there is a conscious and continuous effort to avoid corruption. I fear that a complacent Republican majority is beginning to believe in its God-given right to rule, with or without the consent of the governed.
Since the idiotic and absolutely unncessaary ban on DDT
Jay, you may know a thing or two about politics, but you don’t know shit about science. I know what you think you know about DDT, but you’re wrong. It’s an incredibly destructive agent on the environment, and there are better methods of insect control avaliable. The scientific verdict is in; the destructive effect of DDT is unquestionable.
You can cherry pick your examples all you like, but it’s incontrovertable that Republican policies simply aren’t as effective at any of their stated goals. Now you guys have every branch of government, and what have you achieved? Terrorists still threaten us, the Republican states still feed off the Blue states like parasites. You can’t bring teen pregnancy and STD’s under control – quite the opposite – and your plan to end unwanted pregnancies by illegalizing abortion is as stupid as trying to eliminate colds by banning sneezing.
At what point does recognizing the destructive policies of Republicans stop being hubris and start being an honest appraisal of the situation? What would it take to convince you you’re on the wrong side of almost every issue? Apparently not the evidence.
Rick, the disconnect between the Republican Party hierarchy and their Bible-clutching “values voter” base is an easy one to explain. Despite the GOP’s dependency on radical evangelicals to win elections, they also have a financial dependency that comes almost entirely from another source. That source is the business community, who has nothing to lose and everything to gain from lawless pipelines of immigrants. Simply put, the larger the available pool of labor, the better their hand is at micromanaging wage and benefit rates. Given that the wealthy and powerful are increasingly off the hook for paying the taxes necessary to combat the public expenditures that explode due to immigration, “amnesty” for illegals is a win-win for them…and thus a win-win for the political party that represents their interests.
The gamble for the GOP is that they must continue keeping “values voters” distracted by issues like guns, gay marriage, and not being able to sing Christmas carols at schools so that they don’t rebel against the party saturating the labor market with competition pricing their jobs out of existence. In the short term, with the help of canards like “immigrants take the jobs Americans won’t do”, the strategy is likely to work. Of course, the consequences will come, as always, when it’s too late.
And this is supposed to be the “reality-based” community?
51% of the electorate supported George W. Bush this November. The Democratic Party has lost seats in both houses of Congress. Republican party ID is at least at parity with the Democrats.
You can sit and seethe and pretend like your shit doesn’t stink, but it doesn’t change the facts: the Democratic Party is losing, and it’s losing bigtime. All the strawmen about big, evil Republicans doesn’t change a thing All the constant insinuations that the Democrats are the party of the working class won’t change the fact that Democratic policies fundamentally don’t work. By all means, keep insulting the red states – you already can’t win the Presidency without them, so you’re simply shooting yourselves in the foot.
And you people wonder why you got hammered this election cycle?!
There has been no scientifically proven studies that have linked DDT to human cancers. For instance this study found no correlation between DDT and breast cancer. This one similarly determined that no correlation exists between DDT use and non-Hodgkins Lymphoma.
Using DDT as an agricultural chemical is ineffective and wasteful, but the amount of DDT used to spray 1 hectare of cotton could save 1,000 lives if applied inside houses in Africa. But thanks to the fanaticism of the environmentalist movement 2 million people in the Third World die every year of a disease that is completely preventable.
Jay, your continued attempt to defend indefensible conservative values are really starting to look juvenile. Now you’re reduced to standard name-calling and “how dare you?” petulance when faced with legitimate points about how your worldview is grounded in historical failure. Bottom line….red states feed off of blue states, and nations that embrace red values feed off of nations that embrace blue values….for the simple reason that blue values are more successful in society-building than are red values. The sooner you can come to terms with that simple reality, the less of a fool you will make of yourself.
Give me a bloody break. I’ve already given substantive evidence that “blue values” don’t work. The Democratic Party has a stranglehold on inner-city government, and that just so happens to be where the worst problems in this country are. Washington DC is a perfect example of what happens when liberals get free reign – and it’s an absolute mess.
All this bullshit about how “red states feed off blue states” is exactly why the Democrats lost. Go ahead, keep slanding every state that voted for Bush this year. Make sure that every Republican gets a 286 electoral vote head start and the Democrats go the way of the Whigs.
Sure, the Democrats are such wonderful society builders. Look at the paradise that is downtown Detroit or Trenton, NJ. Look at the pristine streets of Compton and the wonders that is Washington DC at night. Just be sure to pack your flack jacket when you go.
You can sit and seethe and pretend like your shit doesn’t stink, but it doesn’t change the facts: the Democratic Party is losing, and it’s losing bigtime.
And discovering why otherwise intelligent Americans are rejecting policies that work will be the major task facing Democrats in the next few years.
There has been no scientifically proven studies that have linked DDT to human cancers.
Well, except for this one:
Clin Chem Lab Med. 2004 Feb;42(2):222-7.
And, this one:
Environ Health Perspect. 2004 Feb;112(2):156-62.
Oh, wait, can’t forget this one:
Natl Cancer Inst Carcinog Tech Rep Ser. 1978;131:1-251.
Like I said, Jay, you don’t know shit about science. Not to mention, you’ve only spoken to two of the many, many detrimental effects DDT is known to cause in the envrionment.
I’ve already given substantive evidence that “blue values†don’t work.
No, you’ve given us evidence that one city has a lot of crime, and that some Americans prefer to vote Republican. Your attempts to prove Democratic policies “ineffective” have been impotent at best; it really looks like you have nothing better than purile name-calling and juvenile cherry-picking. You can’t argue with the statistics, Jay; presumably that’s why you haven’t even tried.
So your “substantive evidence” that blue values don’t work amounts to the one-size-fits-all case studies of Washington, DC and Detroit? How do you explain Minnesota and Switzerland, the blue U.S. state and blue nation that are the indisputed quality-of-life leaders among all their peers?
Certainly groups most likely to embrace blue values are the nation’s most disadvantaged…of which DC and Detroit have a disproportionate sample. Blue local governments in demographically vulnerable areas only have so much sway in countering a tide of red externals, such as the outsourcing of decent jobs and the continued attempts to make a prohibition against drugs work. More than anything else, the war on drugs will keep places like Detroit and DC from ever seeing any real upward mobility, since the corresponding criminal underworld will remain entrenched in their vulnerable culture as long as we believe drug laws can render the laws of supply and demand non-existent. Nonetheless, the failures of blue Detroit don’t explain the successes of blue Minnesota? And of blue Switzerland? Care to take a jab at that??? Didn’t think so.
The “bullshit” of red states feeding off of red states has the unfortunate (for you) problem of being true. Virtually every red state takes in more federal dollars than they contribute. Facts are stubborn sons-of-bitches aren’t they?
And by disparaging every Democratic city as an urban cesspool, aren’t you essentially ceding their collective millions of votes the same way you suggest that the left is doing by not kissing the asses of red state “values voters”? Furthermore, your intentions may not be rooted in racism, but when you cite the blackest cities in America on your short list of irreparable disaster zones, you are basically giving up 90% of the black vote election after election as well. Seems you guys aren’t that different from us “elitists” after all if you look past the chip on your shoulder for a split second, huh?
As long as the Democratic Party exhibits these kind of arrogant attitudes, they will continue to lose. And it couldn’t happen to a nicer bunch of people…