Now that the Dems have lost yet another election cycle, they're issuing the same calls for bipartisanship. The wiser heads are also calling for "healing" between the two parties.
But the Dems as they're currently constituted don't DESERVE bipartisanship, except in the most limited and tactical ways. Not so long as respected party leaders are embracing America-haters like Moore. Not so long as the hard Left remains a vital force in their party.
The Republicans long ago jettisoned their own crazy aunts. For instance, the John Birch Society and Pat Buchanan both lie unmourned in unmarked political graves.
Until the Dems perform a similar housecleaning, they've forfeited their place at the grownups' table.
Posted by Discoshaman at novembre 14, 2004 11:10 PM | TrackBack
The current state of the Democratic party is comparable to that of the out-of-control drunk or junkie on the street. The Dems are just going to have to hit rock bottom before they're able to begin--no, before they can even think about rehabilitating themselves.
I thought that time had come with Kerry's decisive defeat. And then we here of Howard Dean flirting with Dem. leadership. Oy.
Integrity, integrity, integrity...
Posted by: patrickafir at novembre 15, 2004 06:10 AMpatrick-
I really think this might have been the cycle that did it. I'm blogging on this tomorrow, so I'll only skim over why -- they had excuses for each past failure. This is the cycle that will finally convince them they're a minority party. And I think they will actually make some changes -- though that might actually be in a leftward direction.
There is a real core that thinks they need to "educate" the American people by being unapologetically (if misnomerically) "progressive". That millions of people are wanting to vote Dem, if only given an authentic choice, rather than "Republican Lite."
If Howard Dean gets in, that'll definitely be a sign that the latter opinion is prevailing. As a Republican I sure hope so. As an American, I hope they come back to their senses and move to the middle.
Posted by: Discoshaman at novembre 16, 2004 02:47 AM"The Republicans long ago jettisoned their own crazy aunts. For instance, the John Birch Society and Pat Buchanan both lie unmourned in unmarked political graves."
The Repubs never really embraced the John Birch Society. Certainly not the more moderate Nixon-Eisenhower Republicans of the mid 20th century. Pat Buchanan's staunch nativism, protectionism and isolationism don't bode well with today's republican party.
But the Republicans still have their fair share of 'crazy aunts' and they haven't been purged; far from it. Jerry Falwell, the guy who said that god let 9/11 happen to punish the U.S. for too much homosexuality and secularism was quite frankly treated like a rock star at the Repub national convention. Or our favorite house majority leader who blamed columbine on the teaching of evolution in our nation's public schools.
To say these views are out of the mianstream are putting it nicely.
Posted by: Epitome at novembre 16, 2004 03:23 AMEpitome-
I appreciate you weighing in. However, I think your analysis is untenable due to a couple key flaws. . .
1. Accuracy
"ABERNETHY: And Jerry Falwell was there -- he just didn't speak?LAWTON: He was at a rally. There was an invitation-only private rally that was attended by mainly Protestants, conservative Protestants, and Catholics. He was there. He was introduced, but he did not speak at that rally. And that was the only appearance he made at the convention itself."
Source: http://www.pbs.org/wnet/religionandethics/week801/cover.html
2. Accuracy Part Deux
No Speaker made any such comments. It was Tom Delay.
Here was his actual comment:
"Our school systems teach the children that they are nothing but glorified apes who have evolutionized out of some primordial soup of mud."
THIS is what has you so upset? Delay rightly pointing out that in our modern culture the mystique of humanity has been stripped away by science, and that the concept of a transcendent, God-given value to human life has thus suffered?
Yeah, a belief in the God-derived preciousness of human life... how terribly un-American. ;-) Especially given that 84% of Americans claim Christianity as their religion, and this is a foundational concept of Christianity.
3. Apples and Oranges
Have you really raised these objections in genuine seriousness? Let's do a quick side by side. . .
Side 1 -- a 70's Era ecclesiastical has-been who even the Religious Right pays little attention to these days, and an obscure quote from a Congressman made half a decade ago.
Side 2 -- tens of thousands of people looting, shouting and demonstrating their hatred of America in the streets. A bloviating tub of hate named Moore who jets around the world getting rich by mocking our way of life and undermining our troops. Oh, and a Democratic party leadership who treats him like the love child of Elvis and Ghandi.
You really want to hold this up as a genuine moral equivalency?
Posted by: Discoshaman at novembre 16, 2004 07:32 PMActually, much as I hate to admit it, Falwell's star seems to be rising again. He's getting a lot more face time and voice time on national TV and syndicated radio again, and he's even been touring some of the time with Hannity.
But OTOH, it's true that he's just not the moving force of a significant segment of the right in the way that a significant segment of the left takes their cue from Moore. (Just because a lot of us are evangelicals who agree with Falwell on a number of things does not mean we are directly influenced by him and or follow his specific take on things in the same way that Fahrenheit 9/11 has become a major mouthpiece for the left and Moore has become the face of popular Democratic culture.) It's not as extreme a contrast as Disco makes it (would that it were) but it's not really much of a parallel, either.
Posted by: pentamom at novembre 17, 2004 05:07 PM