The Lemming Left
Topic: Out of Flyover Land
The Democratic Party seems to be bound and determined to run off the edge of a cliff.

Howard Dean, Moveon.org and other assorted irrational Bush haters, rather than trying to avoid this,seem to be petulantly complaining they are not stampeding fast enough.

Over in Captain's Quarters today there was a post titled, Extremism Will Not Win Elections, it stirred up some thoughts I have been mulling over for some time.

Captain Ed said,"Two leading Democratic analysts conclude that the Howard Dean approach to national politics will prove damaging to Democrats over the long term, and that a return to centrism provides the only realistic way for the opposition to compete for power. The two former Clinton aides claim that celebrating the base may mean more funding, but it alienates the mass numbers from the center needed to defeat Republicans:"

I find myself in agreement here, no matter how pleasant the catharsis is when a Democratic Party Flack, "Gives it to Bush and the Republicans" the manner in which it is being done has been as effective, in my opinion as Br'er Rabbits blows on the Tar Baby. ;-)

"In other words, the DNC picked the worst possible national figure for its chair that they possibly could select. The creation of Mad How and his International ANSWER minions as the Democratic Poster Boy may go down as one of the most inept blunders made by a major party. His vile smears and reckless rhetoric repels the very segment the Democrats sorely need to return to power, and every day he has the DNC as his pulpit, he makes it that much harder for Democrats to win elections.

This report did not make the front page of the Post. One wonders if the DNC will ever bother to read it."

One wonders if the Democratic Party even bothered to read a Poll THEY themselves had done which indicates that while the endless hysterical mudslinging HAS affected the President's approval rating, it has had even MORE effect on the Democratic PARTY'S approval rating! ;-)

Democrats' own mood poll scares them

Jun. 29, 2005 at 10:48AM

A poll on the political mood in the United States conducted by the Democratic Party has alarmed the party at its own loss of popularity.
Conducted by the party-affiliated Democracy Corps, the poll indicated 43 percent of voters favored the Republican Party, while 38 percent had positive feelings about Democrats.
"Republicans weakened in this poll ... but it shows Democrats weakening more," said Stanley Greenberg, who served as President Clinton's pollster.
Greenberg told the Christian Science Monitor he attributes the slippage to voters' perceptions that Democrats have "no core set of convictions or point of view."
Fellow strategist James Carville said the war in Iraq and rising fuel prices are affecting party loyalty as well.
"The country is just in a foul mood," Carville said. He noted within the same poll, 56 percent of Americans say the country is headed in the wrong direction.
The poll was conducted June 20-26 and queried 1,078 likely voters. The margin of error was pegged at 3 point


Sometimes I hear talk about how the Country has moved to the right and I wonder , has it really?

Or has the Democratic Party just gone off the Left Deep End so far they had no place to go but to the Republican Party?

Third Party runs recently have only elected someone the splinter group LEAST wanted to win.

My dream is that the Democrats go so far to the Left they cease to be a viable political alternative,

At which time the internal tensions of the Republican Tent may cause a split and the formation of a viable Centralist Libertarian based Party.

In some manner replicating the split that created the present Democratic and Republican Parties when the Whigs fell into the black hole of History.

One of the commenter's on CQ had some valid thoughts

scott
Perhaps ideally, the country could support three parties; a Left party, a Religious Conservative party, and a Centrist Moderate party. Everything seems to break down into those groups. Unfortunately, our political system is not really workable with more than two parties, which is why, I think, our parties periodically lurch from liberal to conservative while trying to grab hold of the centrist voter."

That is the way I see it too. Third Parties tend to be nonviable except in the Short Term, they can prevent a major Party from achieving it's goals but ONLY by drawing voters away from the Party that is CLOSEST to them in philosophy. Which can result in frustrating outcomes. Nadirites elect Bush and Perot followers elect Clinton.

But what is ALSO true is that Political Parties are not always forever.

This Website has a concise picture of the Political History of our Republic.

Copernicus Election Watch

Let me give here a quick and sloppy synopsis as I see it.

First came Republican versus Federalist Parties

Then the Federalist Party faded from view while,

Economic growth and rapid territorial expansion caused the Republican faction to change from Jefferson's agrarian ideal. Many Republicans began to adhere to Federalist principles. By 1828, the Republican faction had split into two, fully formed political parties.

They're baaack!

Then we had:

"The Democratic Republican Party, led by Andrew Jackson, was formed. Supporters favored a limited national government and were opposed to an economic aristocracy. Eventually, this party changed its name to the Democratic Party, which is now the oldest political party in the United States."

And

The National Republican Party, led by John Quincy Adams, was formed. Supporters favored strong economic nationalism, much like the former Federalists.

Who faded and morphed into:

As the National Republican Party dissolved, the Whig Party emerged. Led by Henry Clay and Daniel Webster, the Whigs supported an expanded national government, increased commercial development, and cautious westward expansion

Notice how Centralized Big Government Politics keeps rearing it's ugly head despite repeated defeats?

In time the Whigs declined and

The Whigs and Free-Soilers joined to form the Republican Party, which strongly supported the abolition of slavery.

One interesting facet of the Whig Party was the it's main reason to be was to oppose an American President, it's major failing was that it tried to be all things to all people who were united solely on their mutual hatred of Andrew Jackson.

Sound familiar? ;-)

Now the Republican Party was

opposed to the expansion of slavery into new territories, the Party is not to be confused with the Democratic-Republican party of Thomas Jefferson or the National Republican Party of Henry Clay. In fact, the ideology of the reborn Republican party is seen by some as the successor to the Federalist Party (United States) of John Adams and Alexander Hamilton. However, during Jefferson's presidency, he was called a "Republican", but the reference was to the party now known as the Democratic-Republican Party. That party later split into the Democratic Party and the Whig Party. The latter was formed in the winter of 1833-1834 but was defunct by the time of the American Civil War.

The first convention of the U.S. Republican Party was held on July 6, 1854, in Jackson, Michigan. Many of its initial policies were inspired by the Whig Party, which by then was in decline. Many of the early members of the Republican Party came from the Whigs, the Free Soil Party, and American Party. Since its inception, its chief opposition has been the Democratic Party



I find it interesting that the two paradigms in American Politics seems to be Centralized Big Government and Less Government no matter where a Party starts out it will polarize into one of those two modes, depending largely on the position of its opposition.

That seems to be too simple, but even simple things can have their own validity,

It also seems that the longer a Party maintains dominance the more it tends to support Centralized Big Government no matte where it started from philosophically.

What is one of the main complaints of the Republicans today? That they are acting like Tax and Spend Democrats.

Which presents some of us with a frustrating choice.

Support a Tax and Spend Party or a BIGGER Tax and Spend Party, and if we spin off too soon ENSURE that the Bigger Tax and Spend Party comes into power.

Our only hope is that the DNC drives its Party off the edge of the Political Cliff, THEN a New Second Party can spit off from the Present Republican Party.

Something like this has happened twice before in our Nation's History. There is no reason why it cannot happen again.

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