My Dad once said that the difference between the two parties was simple: the Republicans are stupid, while the Democrats are just plain dumb. Not bad for a Republican. Lewis Black, a professional comic, said that the Democrats are the party of no ideas; the Republicans are the party of bad ideas. Not bad for a non-Republican. With all due respect to filial piety, Black is closer to the mark. Nick Gillespie has this, from the New York Times:
To be sure, these are giddy times for the Dems. Since last year’s elections, they’re back in control of the Congress they’ve dominated most of the time since Franklin D. Roosevelt’s first term. According to a July 27-30 poll conducted for NBC News and The Wall Street Journal, the general public thinks Democrats will do a much better job than Republicans not just on global warming, health care and education but also on traditional Republican bailiwicks like controlling federal spending, dealing with taxes and protecting America’s interest in trade. The front-runner for the Democratic presidential nomination, Hillary Rodham Clinton, continues to lead her Republican counterpart, Rudy Giuliani, in most polls, and a generic Democrat beats a generic Republican in 2008 too.
But as John Kerry might tell you, never write off the Democrats’ ability to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory. The recent farm bill passed by the House — and pushed by Speaker Nancy Pelosi — maintains subsidies to already prospering farmers, angering not just conservative budget cutters but liberal environmentalists. House and Senate Democrats allowed a revision of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act that broadens the scope of warrantless wiretaps just after holding hearings denouncing the man who would issue them, Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, for routinely abusing his power. Although the misconceived and misprosecuted war in Iraq was the issue most responsible for their return to power, Congressional Democrats have yet to put forth a coherent or convincing program to end American military involvement there.
Well, yeah, that's about it. I have observed many times at SDP and in my American News Columns that the Democrats seem incapable of coming up with a coherent policy on Iraq. I think that this is largely why John Kerry lost the 2004 election: bad ideas have to be very bad before they lose to no ideas. The Democrats blast the Bush Administration for violation civil liberties in the war on terrorism. Fine. But how would they prosecute that war, so as to protect civil liberties while protecting America against international terrorism? Well, by giving the Bush Administration legal authority to do all the things it was doing. As for the environment, I would remind readers that President Clinton did not even submit the Kyoto treaty to the Senate.
Maybe the Republicans have such bad ideas that no ideas can beat them. Gillespie has his doubts.
Little wonder, then, that the NBC/Wall Street Journal poll found that only 24 percent of American adults approve of the job the Democratic Congress is doing. That’s a decline of seven points from March. There are longer-lived trends that should worry the Democrats. In 1970, according to the Harris Poll, 49 percent of Americans considered themselves Democrats (31 percent considered themselves Republicans). In 2006, the last year for which full data are available, affiliation with the Democrats stood at 36 percent (the silver lining is that the Republicans pulled just 27 percent). If the Democrats are in fact the party of Great Society liberals, the problems run even deeper. The percentage of Americans who define their political philosophy as “liberal” has been consistently stuck around 18 percent since the 1970s, and the Democratic presidential candidate has failed to crack 50 percent of the popular vote in each of the past seven elections.
Kerry ran as not-Bush. The Democrats are running as not-Republicans. I am doubtful that this will work for long.
Recent Comments