“Where are Democrats? They’re desperately seeking to preserve every government program and benefit enacted since the days of the New Deal. The problem for them is that the New Deal paradigm — the belief that Washington could endlessly improve people’s lives — has lost its appeal,” writes Fred Barnes in the Wall Street Journal.
Needless to say, I enjoy reading stories like this one. Anything that dissects and eviscerates liberals and analyzes why they lost the election, I’m all over it. About George Bush’s decisive victory, Barnes writes:
George W. Bush got more votes in winning re-election than the entire population of France. He improved his share of the vote among Latinos, women, African-Americans, Jews and Catholics. Winning a plurality of states along the Mississippi River has guaranteed presidential victory since 1912. Mr. Bush won a majority. This year, says Democratic pollster Peter Hart, “a sense of Republicanism crept up the river. The president won Missouri, which was always a tossup state, by more than 7%. Iowa flipped his direction, and in Minnesota and Wisconsin, we waited all night to find out that Kerry had just barely carried those states.” So the Upper Midwest, following the South, Southwest, Plains, and Rocky Mountains, is now trending Republican.
Democrats thought they had the formula down but obviously used the wrong ingredients:
And don’t forget what Democrats insisted for decades was their path to sure victory. If Democrats could match Republican campaign spending, energize their base, dramatically increase voter turnout, and provoke a robust debate on big issues, they’d win the White House and probably a whole lot more. Well, they managed all of that in 2004. The result: A Republican won with the first presidential majority since 1988. Mr. Bush touted an agenda of bold conservative reform. The last time a Democrat won as an unalloyed liberal was 1964.
During this election, the larger voter turnout benefited Republicans. To think I was worried that more voters equaled more Democrats. Barnes notes that Democrats ignored the growing exurban and rural areas. I’m curious to see how liberals reach out to people living in these places. If Dems are as smart as they think they are, in the quest to appeal to such voters, they’ll avoid the subjects of child killing and homosexuality like Black Death.
Read the rest of Barnes’s analysis. And enjoy it.
More good reading in the Washington Times.
The Los Angeles Times (reg. req.) has the latest on in-squabbling in the Democratic Party:
On one front, a liberal operative at a top think tank has accused the Democratic Leadership Council, the principal organization of party centrists, of pushing the party toward a pro-corporate agenda “that sells out America’s working class — the demographic that used to be the party’s base.”In equally combative terms, a leading young centrist commentator published a manifesto in the New Republic magazine accusing the Democratic left of slighting the struggle against Islamic terrorism and undermining the party’s image on security — an argument instantly embraced and promoted by the Democratic Leadership Council….
[T]hese twin firefights, which have inspired volleys of responses, Web postings and e-mails, reflect enduring divisions over strategy, message and policy that could influence the race for the chairmanship of the Democratic National Committee next month and are certain to loom over the contest for the presidential nomination in 2008.
Pass the popcorn!
Read about my epiphany in Update V.
Upcoming posts:
- 2004 Blogosphere Round-up…with a twist!
- DC Blogger Meet-up after-action report…with pictures!
{ 30 comments }
LaShawn on Donk infighting.
Ah heck, LaShawn. If the dems where half as smart as they think they are, they’d be twice as smart as they really are.
They could still leave abortion and homosexuality on the table, but only if they are willing to discuss the issue, not just attack the opposition by calling them names. There’s a chunk of the right that needs to do the same of course…
Your article “The Blogosphere’s Smaller Stars” published at the Nation Review Online:
NationalReview.Com/comment/barber200412200814.asp, was very well written and readable….showoff!
Just kidding of course. A combination of talent and hard work I think. Congratulations and a Happy New Year.
I love it when the liberals are fighting among themselves, but we as conservataives should never get complacent. Now is the time to consolidate our gains, put on the table the proposals that we need to keep America strong and growing, and to reach across the aisle to those liberals who really do understand that that America is no longer the 1930’s or 1950’s. Also conservatives should realize that we do not have all of the answers to the nation’s problems. That is why a dialogue is so important – but alas it takes two to dialogue and the liberal left won’t talk to anyone but the mirror. (I started to say the mirror and God, but realized how politically unacceptable it would be for them to be seen talking to God)
On one front, a liberal operative at a top think tank has accused the Democratic Leadership Council, the principal organization of party centrists, of pushing the party toward a pro-corporate agenda “that sells out America’s working class – the demographic that used to be the party’s base.”
It’s also a demographic that has undergone a profound shift in self-image since the days of the New Deal and Great Society. More and more of its members are now practicing capitalists by one means or another, and know it.
As I’ve said before, capitalism is the People’s Revolution. And its constant micro-revolutions, particularly since the 1980s and ’90s, have caused a tide change that’s left the Dems high and dry.
La Shawn, think you could also enable the <i> and <b> tags, for those of us accustomed to using them instead of <em> and <strong>?
</abject plea>
SCSIWuzzy
“If the dems where half as smart as they think they are, they’d be twice as smart as they really are.” Great line!
CSPAN had a replay of an panel on the 2004 election yesterday. One of the interesting questions provoking even more interesting answers was “Who is the face of the Democratic Party today?” Two names that did not come up were Al Gore and John Kerry. The name that kept coming up but not much enthusiasm was Bill Clinton. Perhaps Democrats are beginning to realize that Bill Clinton is a very mixed blessing for Democrats. The face of Bill Clinton is exactly that–the face of Bill Clinton. He is above all for himself–before the Democratic Party, our country, his wife, his daughter, his girlfriends, before anything. He has a chance to begin to rebuild his image with this new disaster appointment. Let’s see how he’ll do. I hope well.
Pro-corporate? Has it occured to these folks that Corporations Employ People?
The party of abortion says… they aren’t…
The party of ambulance chasers says… they aren’t…
The party of public employee unions says… they aren’t…
The party of racial divisiveness says… they aren’t…
The party of appeasement says… they aren’t…
Because their base trusts them to lie.
Actually, 2004 was a blessing in disguise for liberals in general and Democrats in particular.
The economy’s in the crapper, the war in Iraq is going south, the deficit is ballooning, and we still haven’t caught Bin Laden (remember him)? Not that you’d know this from reading Sun Myung Moon’s rag.
Guess who’ll take the blame for all these debacles? Yes–the GOP in general and Bush 2 in particular.
The “infighting” you read about is really no different from a. the soul-searching Republicans did in 1992 and b. the infighting going on right now in the GOP between conservatives and moderates. (Conservatives seem to hate their Chafees and Snowes, whereas we have no problem with our moderates.)
As for the Rockies “trending Republican,” Montana has elected a Democratic governor and its state legislatures are now controlled by Democrats. Colorado’s state legislatures are also controlled by Democrats, and they elected a Democrat to replace an outgoing Republican senator.
In addition, Democrats gained control of state legislatures in other states. State legislatures are, of course, the farm team for future political players on the national stage.
Long story short: the GOP will have to take the fall for whatever goes wrong in 2005 and beyond as the Dems regroup. Already, a Gallup poll puts Bush’s approval ratings at a stellar 46 percent. Not good for a guy who won an election just 2 month ago. Not good at all.
BTW, he’s not really a conservative. I thought conservatives were, you know, fiscally conservative. Borrowing and spending irresponsibly is not conservative. Neither is driving up a deficit. Neither is big government, which is what Bush has.
Needless to say, Dems have moved on and are looking forward. The conservative blogs will make for interesting reading in the years go come. How will you explain the Iraq war anyway?
Someone should show these articles to Christine Todd Whitman. Her new book must have been written while she was wandering in the desert blindfolded.She’s a true RHINO if there ever was one.
On second thought she probably spent too much time breathing the air by the refineries on the NJ turnpike.
About the ‘New Deal paradigm’, Bush will lose his quest to destroy Social Security, and he will lose bad. Trust me.
If you don’t mind, here’s a little economic lesson on the issue, I’ll try to keep it simple:
The US owes $7 trillion in national debt. Most of that debt was accumulated over the last 25 years, i.e. Reagan and the Bush’s tax cuts.
Of that debt, about $3 trillion was borrowed from the Social Security trust fund. You should also remember that in 1983 Greenspan’s commision raised SS taxes to take care of the upcoming baby boom (What!? Reagan raised taxes?). But that extra money has been raided to pay for the deficits. (Gore’s lockbox now seems like a REALLY good idea).
So when you look at the big picture, what has happened is that taxes have been raised on the low and middle-income wage earners (S.S. is capped at $85k) to pay for the tax cuts for the wealthy.
So now, Bush wants to find a way not to pay the $3 trillion owed to Social Security and thus complete the con. And in the mean time, he is raiding money from the trust fund as fast as he can by running gigantic deficits.
Hope that was enlightening.
The basic problem is that the Democratic Party no longer has an intelligible agenda, or a central vision of what the country needs. The DLC and its “centrist” cohorts have nothing to offer but smoke and mirrors. None of them, for example have sensible ideas to present about “security” or “Islamic terrorism”. They don’t even have any bad ideas about it.
Everybody else but the “centrists” wants to do the real work of articulating a genuine vision and intelligible agenda, but this presupposes that Democrats will have to work to sell it to the public once we do. And we must take the risk that there will be no sale.
From the DLC vantage point, the surest way to avoid the risk is to have nothing to sell. We had very little to sell in 2004, so I don’t think having even less is going to work.
Here’s a party that puts its own interests above the needs of the nation and now they are paying the price with tom daschelle now put out of office and kerry the big loser they have no one to blame but themselves.
‘. The problem for them is that the New Deal paradigm — the belief that Washington could endlessly improve people’s lives — has lost its appeal,”’
I thought the new deal paradigm was simply that unfettered gilded age capitalism didn’t work and a little regulation was a good thing. But never fear, the WSJ is ready and willing ot lead us back to the 19th century.
If anything, FDR and the New Deal prolonged the suffering from the Great Depression (keeping taxes high, destroying crops and livestock to maintain price controls). And the GD itself was a failure of the regulated banking system, not of an unregulated market.
“GD itself was a failure of the regulated banking system, not of an unregulated market.”
What regulated banking system? the Fed reserve? Thats not very regulated.
Lola:
‘Pro-corporate? Has it occured to these folks that Corporations Employ People? ‘
All the more reason to be pro-people.
Euroland is pro-people and look at their economy. Seems like all the talk here in Germany right now is about how the social system is in the crapper with another round of cuts yet again in the offing. That’s ok, I’ll take our deficit since we’ll grow our way out of it
‘Euroland is pro-people and look at their economy.’
Lets. Nice cozy GDP per capita, lower work hours. And in some countries, more effiency than here — in terms of GDP per man-hour of work.
High unemployment (and rising). Stagnant growth (outside of the rebuilding in the DDR in the case of Germany). Dropping domestic birth rates.
‘Stagnant growth (outside of the rebuilding in the DDR in the case of Germany).’
Really? Ireland has been pretty hot over the last decade.
and the US gdp per capita growth has been 2.0 percent from 1990 to 2002. tied with or beaten by a couple of euro countries.
That low birth rate is good for something.
http://hdr.undp.org/statistics/data/indic/indic_125_1_1.html
Actus, you’ve been fed a pipe dream if you believe that Euro-folks have it made. Their so-called standard of living has a higher misery index (to use sKerry’s quotient). I’m sitting here listening to neighbors moan and groan about constant cutbacks, broken promises & reduced services from health services to name your social-gimme.
But of course, the grass is greener on the other side of the pond, hence the mass influx of immigrants, both legal and illegal to the EU.
Ireland is an exception only in the sense that they got started on their pro-capitalist economy before joining the EU and now fighting tooth & nail to hang on to what they’ve accomplished. That being primarily tax-harmonization that France & Germany are eager to see forced upon Ireland, Poland, Spain etc. To force their tax rates up and increase the redtape to eliminate competition and mitigate capital outflow.
That vibrant green grass of Ireland is quickly fading thanks to meddling bureaucrats in Brussels trying to micromanage Irish affairs and it won’t be long before it’s as brown as the cowpats that is Germany or France. Unless, big if, the smaller countries revolt from Brussel’s planned economy.
‘Actus, you’ve been fed a pipe dream if you believe that Euro-folks have it made. ‘
I don’t think they have it made. I think its not so bad as many people make it out to be.
“I think its not so bad as many people make it out to be”
No, it’s worse. Almost like watching a train wreck in slo-mo.
http://www.techcentralstation.com/010405D.html
Well the industry funded tech station tells us that france is in a free fall because, what? It hasn’t achieved the growth rates of the reconstruction? An economist published a book saying so? It still remains a developed country with a high per-capita GDP, and growth rate not too far off from the US’s. That’s no free fall.
Umm, ok I guess you win. What could we who lived on the economy and witnessed the decline 1st hand have been thinking? We must have been snookered by industry supported rags who are obviously biased against the pro-people gubmint — 1 trillion in deficits or 62% of French GDP. Yeah, that’s the ticket.
Never mind that it is a French economist from the Govt’s own party that is ringing the alarm bells.
Just heard on the news (N-24 — a German CNN)last night that Germans are having unprecedented personal bankruptcies, as in credit cards debts etc (doubled over the last 5 years). And likewise, German deficits have crossed the 50% of GDP threshold. Yes, life is good here in Euroland and it’s only gonna get better.
You better hurry and migrate here while the getting is good. They’d love to see another Ami settle here to offset the Islamic-boomers.
‘Just heard on the news (N-24 – a German CNN)last night that Germans are having unprecedented personal bankruptcies, as in credit cards debts etc (doubled over the last 5 years).’
What kind of rates of bankruptcies and consumer debt are we seeing here?
‘You better hurry and migrate here while the getting is good. They’d love to see another Ami settle here to offset the Islamic-boomers.’
Why does it have to be about migration? Lots of things keep people from moving. such as family, language, career, etc…
The point is that the grass really is greener on the US side of the fence – there’s no place like home, Toto — so quit nickpicking it as if Euroland is better.
More specificlly, pro-people policies couldn’t prevent folks from going into bankruptcies — of which 50% were estimated to be directly linked to loss of jobs and/or declining purchasing power. Leading credit card vendor is the Eurocard, which is Euroland’s answer to AmEx, MasterCard & Visa — one can always use a EC anywhere in Europe, while not even MC or Visa is so widely accepted. So credit card debt is not unique to capitalist money-mongers, but socialist grubbers as well.
When has family, language, career or even money stopped people from immigrating before? When the tradeoff doesn’t equal greater personal freedom.
Ya’ll talk a good talk about how great Euroland social policies are, but not willing to walk a mile or two, let alone commit your future to it. Hmmmm…
There is no EU model to emulate, only lessons to be learned (at their cost)and avoided like the plague.
Sorry to break it that way to ya.
PS. In the US, we can safely assume that anything is ok, as long as there isn’t a law against it.
For most of Euroland, especially Germany, if the law doesn’t explicitly permit it, you can safely assume that it isn’t allowed, with penalties to follow close behind. Kinda puts a whole new perspective on personal/social freedom/interaction/responsibility.
“Mother, may I” gets tiresome for the independent types real quick.
‘The point is that the grass really is greener on the US side of the fence – there’s no place like home, Toto – so quit nickpicking it as if Euroland is better.’
I have no argument over who is better. I just say that its not as bad as some make it out to be. No need to get defensive.
‘When has family, language, career or even money stopped people from immigrating before? When the tradeoff doesn’t equal greater personal freedom.’
It stops people all the time. Its stopping me right now from moving from DC to new mexico. My career and family and here. Its part of the equation. Economics isn’t everything.
‘Ya’ll talk a good talk about how great Euroland social policies are, but not willing to walk a mile or two, let alone commit your future to it. Hmmmm…’
Oh I’ll commit to it. I live in US cities, which are more like europe than non-cities. I vote and hope for more euro-like policies in terms of worker protection and unionization, as well as vacation times and working hours.
There’s just something about packing up and ‘walking a mile or two’ to a different continent. (its a bit more than that)
Again, no argument over who is ‘better’, i think there are plenty of incommensurables, and personal value distinctions. I just think its not as bad as some make it out to be. Which doesn’t stop people from getting defensive.
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