[Kaylee]

Jeez. What happened?

Scarcely five years ago, we had a Democrat up there in office that could win re-election from now till judgement day with his boxers around his ankles. If it weren't for that blasted amendment, Clinton could have become the next FDR if he wanted, I'm sure.

Now.... wuh. I knew there was a sea change underway, but WOW.

I woke up to NPR this morning (doesn't happen often these days, but I thought I'd give it a go). On the California Recall issue.. who do they choose to interview? Davis's staff, perhaps? No.... oh! the guy who funded the recall effort then dropped out? No? Arnold's staff?

no...

Some LA Times Columnist who threw his hat into the ring to "make a statement."

Ah... yes. Newsworthy, that one. But at least he said The Right Things (the recall is a farce, a circus, initiatives are great as long as they go our way, yadda yadda)

Then we're on to foreign affairs. If we can't find someone in the US borders that agrees with us that the US is a mean evil bully, there must be SOME poor oppressed soul sitting in a third world hovel that will. So.... off to India (kinda missed the third world there dude, they got software guys putting Silicon Valley engineers out of work.. I'm impressed!). Anyhow, we find ourselves a travel agent.

A bit of chit chat, then The Question.

"Do you think the US was wrong for going to war in Iraq?"

You can almost hear the rising eagerness in the interviewer, struggling to finally, FINALLY get some support for this position..

"No," she says in sweetly accented English.. "I think everyone has a right to defend themselves."

ARRRRRRGH..... you can almost hear the poor man struggle to contain his stomach acids from chewing him a new ulcer....we move on..

The local lefty rag is constantly running political cartoons on the vanished American Left, and one article even came out warning us about the deathcamps Bush II would send 'em all to after he canceled the 2004 elections.. as if GW actually had a reason to be worried about the weed-soaked ramblings of the local college crowd that keeps that rag in bread and butter.



I mean... WOW.
Now I'll grant I'm not even 30 yet, but I can't recall seeing or hearing of that much of a shift in popular belief in so short a time in ages. Moreover, in true Democrat fashion, everytime it seems clearer that the direction they're heading is a one-way ticket to pathetic irrelevancy..... they step on the gas.

At this rate... there won't be a Democratic party in a generation. Maybe the Greens will pick up their dissaffected members, or maybe another Clinton will come out of the woodwork and rally the troops. But for now.... it's kinda like watching a train wreck.

I almost feel sorry for you guys.. wow.


-K

[Art Eatman]

At the national level, Democrats are proof that coalitions can win elections but cannot govern. Their competing interests create way too much dissension.

So long as there are bombs going off here, there and yonder around the world, a lot of folks are looking more at external enemies than internal. Even people who don't like the Patriot Act, or who don't believe the war on Iraq was the wisest course believe the Bushies will do better at avoiding terroristic acts here.

But I somehow have great difficulty in detecting even a modicum of sorrow in my heart for the trials and travails of the Democrats. :D

Art

[agricola]

The same thing happened over here following the 1997 and the last General Election, at both of which the Tories were pummelled into irrelevance. Yet two years on IDS's Fabian tactics are starting to pay off and its not unlikely that Blair could lose the next election, if IDS plays his cards right - most of the country sees him and the Govt as dishonest, his only supporters in the media (the Murdoch papers thanks to the Kelly saga) would probably return to the Tory ranks if IDS identified an asylum policy that was at least partially acceptable to people, and the party is split down the middle on many issues - Private Eye have been reporting on the fighting between Blair and Brown camps for so long it almost has become a cliche.

[Destructo6]

He picked the wrong people to interview. You have to keep in mind, as the interviewer should have, that India is having their own problems with militant Muslims in and around Kashmir.

Never count the other side down and out (at least when the fight is not literal). It seems to be more of a rubberband effect: far to one side, then snapping back.

[MicroBalrog]

"The worst mistake of the warrior is to underestimate his opponent".

My SCA-swordfighting instructor

[Glock Glockler]

Kaylee,

It seems to me that the "two" parties are more and more one party, agreeing on the big goals but doing a lot of public bickering on details. I don't think the Democrats will ever go away, they'll just reinvent themselves differently to regain market share.

I think the two parties need each other to scare the voters with the opposing side. "Well, if we don't vote for the Mensheviks then the Bolsheviks will win, then we'll be really screwed". What is either party without the other party to be their enemy? If either side actually got their way completely we'd be a totalitarian police state or a slightly different flavored totalitarian police state.

Hmmmm, tough choice, so how many different types of Coke are there?

[MicroBalrog]

Hmmmm, tough choice, so how many different types of Coke are there?

Wrong comparison, as there's only one type of Coke - Coka-Cola. The other one's are strikingly different in taste - and I can tell the difference.

And, unlike the Republicans, Coka-Cola tastes real good.

[Standing Wolf]

At this rate... there won't be a Democratic party in a generation.

Personally, I'd like to see five or six parties duke it out every election with lots of enthusiasm rather than the Republicrat party versus the Demican party election after election.

[Moparmike]

Yes, I would like to see the Libertarians get in to Congress and start shaking things up. Just 100 or so, just enough to get bias and party-lining out of the bigger picture. [flame suit on] Get some common sense in the Capitol Building and maybe our country will start to improve.

[Duncan Idaho]

"The worst mistake of the warrior is to underestimate his opponent".That also applies to people that couldn't fight their way out of a wet paper bag.

Case in point: the Demorats still call Bush an idiot. They never once stop to consider what we should call a group of people who relentlessly get their political butts kicked by an idiot.