Will Rogers once quipped that he wasn’t a member of an organized political party – he was a Democrat. Will Rogers couldn’t have been more right. Witness the Democrat’s efforts to flail about for an agenda, demonstrating precisely why the Democrats keep losing elections. For instance, Harry Reid states:
The Senate’s top Democrat says 1994’s “Contract with America,” the Republican campaign agenda the year the GOP regained control of Congress — was an “urban myth.”
“The ‘Contract with America’ didn’t accomplish anything,” said Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nevada. “(It) didn’t change the election at all.”
Other than having the GOP take control of the House for the first time in 54 years, it didn’t accomplish anything. Never mind that the Contract With America was such a dismal failure that the Democrats are flailing around to find their own version of it. The fact is that the Contract With America was one of the centerpieces of the Republican Revoluton of 1994, and one would think that Reid would want to learn the right lessons from history rather than the wrong ones.
Then again, perhaps I’m overestimating the logical capacity of Senator Reid.
And if that weren’t enough:
Democrats insist most of this year’s campaigns — 75 percent — will be a referendum on President Bush.
Which ignores the fact that President Bush isn’t on the ballot this year. This strategy failed in 2002 and 2004 (when Bush was on the ballot). The Democrats have the fatal conceit of thinking that everyone thinks exactly like they do, and all they have to do is close the deal. Yet for as bad as the Republicans are, the Democratic Party has never been further away from the mainstream in American politics. On nearly every issue, the Democrats offer platitudes for the same agenda they’ve had for decades: higher taxes, more wasteful government programs, and a weaker nation. No matter how much lipstick they put on that pig, it doesn’t get any better looking.
The only way the Republicans can lose is if they screw this election up – which admittedly they’re doing a very good job of doing. However, the Democratic “agenda” of constant Bush-bashing and mealy-mouthed promises of budget-busting social programs won’t get them ahead. What they fail to understand is that while their ideology paints Bush as an arch-conservative, the weakness in Bush’s ratings isn’t because he’s a conservative, it’s because he isn’t. The American people are sick of big-government agendas, whether they’re Bush’s “compassionate conservatism” or the Democrats’ “Nude Erection New Direction for America.”
And this is how well things are going for the Democrats already:
At a meeting with reporters at the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee headquarters, Democratic leaders unveiled a Web video with clips of the president saying “stay the course” interspersed with graphics such as “gas prices at an all time high.”
They played the video on a small laptop in the front of the room full of reporters because, they said, they couldn’t find a screen projector.
Will Rogers didn’t know how right he was…
“the Democratic Party has never been further away from the mainstream in American politics. On nearly every issue, the Democrats offer platitudes for the same agenda they’ve had for decades”
As usual, you have perfectly stated the exact opposite of the truth. The only issue where the majority of Americans are closer to the Republicans than Democrats is national security, and most polls show their advantage on that front has understandably slipped.
“the weakness in Bush’s ratings isn’t because he’s a conservative, it’s because he isn’t”
That’s the case in perhaps 10% of those who now oppose Bush. The other 90% of Bush critics are not opposed to him because he’s insufficiently right wing.
“The American people are sick of big-government agendas,”
Yet curiously, they continue to demand more, be it a Medicare drug benefit, regulations to control gas prices, new education bureaucracies, or Federal welfare to faith-based organizations. There are incredibly few Americans who really wish to see government become smaller.
The current Democratic leadership is admittedly awful, but at least so far, the American people appear to give them the benefit of the doubt on the grounds that the current thugs, theocrats and plutocrats have to go. This past week of polling (at the race-by-race level) indicates a GOP bloodbath on the horizon. I’m not anticipating it’ll fully come to fruition, but if even half the Republicans who appear to be highly vulnerable end up being so, November 7 will be the most disastrous night for the GOP since election night 1974.
That’s the thing, if Bush’s approval ratings among conservatives were where at the levels they’ve traditionally been, Bush would have a 50% approval rating… which was about the same rating he had when he beat Kerry. The left hates Bush as a person, the right distrusts Bush because of his stances on immigration and other issues.
Sadly, you’re probably right, but I don’t see very many people demanding more bureaucracy in education or faith-based initiatives. The Medicare benefit was a confusing mess, and Congress was more interested in gas price controls than the people were.
It’s that “theocrats and plutocrats” crap that turns off anyone who doesn’t already drink the left-wing Kool-Aid. Seriously, does anyone who spouts that tripe really think it’s actually persuasive? It’s that kind of profoundly unserious rhetoric that shows why the Democratic Party is not mature enough to lead.
Except polling this early is worthless execpt as perhaps the first part of a trendline.
Just as in 2004, the American people have their reservations about Bush, but the Democrats can’t lead. All they can do is try and pull down the President.
If the Republicans win, they’ll have to lead, which they’ve done a very poor job of doing in the past few years. If the Democrats win, they’ll launch the biggest partisan witch hunt since the McCarthy days. It will rip this country apart and probably take the Democratic Party with it. If such a thing wouldn’t be profoundly bad for the country on nearly every level, part of me would hope that the Democrats do win so that Congress is gridlocked and the nation sees the Democratic Party for the bunch of partisan assholes they are. The current Democratic Party couldn’t lead a sailor to a whorehouse, and as bad as the GOP has allowed themselves to become, they’re infitinately preferable to a party that is united only by the childish and petulant partisanship.
Fortunately, there’s nothing more off-putting to the American electorate that whiny and childish partisanship, and that’s why the GOP will lose seats this fall, but they’re likely to keep their majority.
“if Bush’s approval ratings among conservatives were where at the levels they’ve traditionally been, Bush would have a 50% approval rating”
Doubtful. He lost alot of the left-leaning security moms since 2004. They were what accounted for his 50% approval rating two years ago. Even if he consolidated EVERY self-proclaimed conservative along with the few centrists still in his corner, he’d be batting about 42-44%.
“It’s that “theocrats and plutocrats†crap that turns off anyone who doesn’t already drink the left-wing Kool-Aid.”
Nope, what turns people off is finding out the rhetoric is right, as was proven again last week with Bush’s idiotic veto of wildly popular stem cell research funding. Notice how his approval ratings, which temporarily rebounded to 40%, are headed back the other way again since that veto. I wonder why?
“but the Democrats can’t lead. All they can do is try and pull down the President.”
And it appears Americans are cool with that compared to the current scenario of incompetent one-party rule.
“and as bad as the GOP has allowed themselves to become, they’re infitinately preferable to a party that is united only by the childish and petulant partisanship.”
We’ll have to wait until November to see if that sentiment extends beyond hyperpartisan conservative bloggers.