Posted on 09/05/2014 7:09:54 AM PDT by Kaslin
Liberals like to think and talk about themselves as if they were the wave of the future. Note, for example, how Barack Obama and John Kerry have denounced Islamist terrorists and Vladimir Putin for behaving as if they are still in the "19th century."
On domestic policy, liberals see history as a story of progress from tiny government to ever-larger government -- though never stating exactly how far that movement should go.
Obama came to the nation's attention in 2004 as a new figure, young and future-oriented. His successful 2008 campaign was seen as a drive for "hope and change." But in many ways today's Democrats seem stuck in the past, a party whose headliners are increasingly legacy candidates.
Examples are found in seriously contested Senate races. In Arkansas, Democratic Sen. Mark Pryor has run an ad featuring his father, David, who was first elected to the House in 1966, as governor in 1974 and to the Senate in 1978.
He retired from the Senate in 1996, 18 years ago. Since then, Republicans have captured majorities in both houses of the state legislature and the entire congressional delegation except for Pryor's seat.
In Louisiana, Democratic Sen. Mary Landrieu was embarrassed by the revelation that her in-state residence is her parents' house. Appropriately, perhaps, since politics is the family business.
Her father, Moon Landrieu, was first elected to public office in 1960. He was elected mayor of New Orleans in 1970 and 1974. His fame helped Mary Landrieu win three Senate races, never with more than 52 percent of the vote, and it helped her brother Mitch get elected lieutenant governor in 2003 and 2007 and New Orleans mayor in 2010 and again this February.
Up in Alaska, incumbent Democratic Sen. Mark Begich faces a tough challenge. Elected mayor of Anchorage in 2003 and 2007, he comes from a well-known political family. His father, Nick, was elected to Congress in 1970 and was lost in a plane crash with House Majority Leader Hale Boggs in 1972, 42 years ago. This year, Begich's campaign produced an ad featuring footage from his father's old campaign commercials.
Or consider the two largest safe Democratic states, both with governors who are the sons of governors. Andrew Cuomo's father, Mario, was elected governor of New York in 1982, 1986 and 1990. Jerry Brown's father, Pat, was elected governor of California in 1958 and 1962, and Jerry won his first public office in 1969 and the governorship in 1974 and 1978.
California's Democratic senators both lack political parentage but won their first elections a long time ago, Dianne Feinstein in 1969 and Barbara Boxer in 1976.
Then there's Hillary Clinton, favorite for the 2016 presidential nomination, whose husband was first elected to public office in 1976. The Clintons' 1992 theme song, "Don't Stop (Thinking About Tomorrow)," was released in 1977.
If Democratic officeholders are rooted in the past, so are some of their favorite policies. On Labor Day, Obama called for raising the minimum wage, first passed by Congress in 1938.
Left-wing Democrats are calling for increased benefits under Social Security, first passed in 1935. Equal pay for women is a staple of Democratic campaigns. It has been federal law since 1964.
Democrats have ingeniously recycled these oldies. The much-heralded Lilly Ledbetter Act extended the statute of limitations on sexual discrimination suits -- a gift to trial lawyers.
In 2012, with help from former Clinton aide George Stephanopoulos, Democrats raised the specter of Republicans banning contraception -- something the Supreme Court ruled out in 1965.
The recycling of past themes can block more effective alternatives. For example, more than half of minimum wage increases go to members of non-low-income households. One could give more to the working poor by expanding the earned income tax credit, but that doesn't poll as well.
Social Security is already on an unsustainable course; increasing benefits is a nonstarter. It might be better to imitate Canada's tax-free savings accounts if we want comfortable retirements for modest-income people.
As for contraception, there are reports that it was widely available even before the Obamacare contraception mandate requiring all forms, including abortifacients, to be covered in health insurance policies.
Every political party has its grizzled veteran officeholders and succumbs sometimes to the temptation to champion antique policies and talking points that poll well rather than innovative policies better suited to new times. But Barack Obama's -- and Hillary Clinton's -- Democratic Party, stung by the electorate's ingratitude for its economic policies and Obamacare, seems to have jumped into a "Back to the Future" DeLorean and steered half a century back in time.
Who would have thought "hope and change" meant Industrial Age big government for the individual-choice-oriented Information Age?
Don't underestimate the power of the "undocumented" voter.
DemocRATS are grifters doing whatever it takes to maintain power and enrich themselves and their friends using other people’s money- it’s a lifestyle choice.
Barone forgot to mention that the Democrats’ #1 hope of winning a GOP-held Senate seat is political neophyte Michelle Nunn, who just happens to be the daughter of Sam Nunn, who served as a Democrat U.S. Senator from GA from 1972 to 1997, that their gubernatorial candidate in GA is the grandson of Jimmy Carter (who served as governor from 1971 to 1975 and as president from 1977 to 1981), and that their only chance at picking up a GOP-held U.S. House district in FL is political neophyte Gwen Graham, daughter of Bob Graham (who served as governor from 1979 to 1987 and as U.S. Senator from 1987 to 2005).
Lifestyle choice? We need to add another letter -- G for Grifter -- to the LBGTQ etc. melange.
The author needs to wake up. This isn't a game anymore. These people are playing for keeps.
Andrew Cuomo... Jerry Brown...
Interestingly, they're both sons of something else, too.
I doubt it.
Politically, election-wise, the Democrats can get to 50% with almost any presidential candidate they nominate.
And that number will continue to slowly go up.
New immigrant citizens - 750,000 every year - vote 80% for the Democrat Party.
Meanwhile, every year, more elderly Conservatives die than elderly Democrats.
The legacy card has been played in politics since John Quincy Adams days, but the numbers in recent days strike me as off the charts. There is an entitlement mentality in politics and it extends to both sides of the aisle. The Bushes, of course, but also Romney, Liz Cheney (Wyoming wasn’t buying that one), the list goes on.
Right here in Kansas, the heart of flyover country, the right of royal succession is often assumed. Senator Nancy Landon Kassenbaum was the daughter of Presidential candidate Alf Landon. Kathleen Sebeilus’ father was governor of Ohio and her father in law was the Republican Representative for Western Kansas. Senator Pat Roberts’ father was the Chairman of the Republican National Committee until fired by Eisenhower for accepting a bribe.
What is new is that we are beginning to see 2d and 3d generation political fledglings who have been bred, born, and raised within the ring around the throne that is the Capital Beltway. They are disconnected from their parents and grandparents home states, but they insist that they have a birthright to represent these miserable sods in Congress. In the era of celebrity politics, the dull witted seem to be willing to vote for them.
“The author needs to wake up. This isn’t a game anymore. These people are playing for keeps.”
Yep, “Free Stuff” and Government dependence will never get old. Just ask FDR. That’s where it went into high gear.
“Given the present course, very soon elections will be meaningless just as they are in other totalitarian systems.”
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Six years ago is very soon?
“Meanwhile, every year, more elderly Conservatives die than elderly Democrats.”
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Those who, like me, are old enough to remember when we still had some semblance of freedom we will have to console ourselves with that. As for the future the only hope is in the tendency of youth to rebel, they certainly have plenty to rebel against now, those in power are pushing ideas that have failed to produce anything other than misery anytime and anyplace they have been tried and those ideas are as old as the hills but they are trying to pretend to be the thinkers of the future. It is as if someone were trying to sell stone knives as “cutting edge” technology. The truly brilliant idea that has only been tried for brief periods in a very few places is freedom and very few seem to realize that free is a SUPERLATIVE. There really are no degrees of freedom as some seem to believe, there are only degrees of repression. If that doesn’t sound right ask yourself if there are any degrees of FREE gifts, if someone offers you a GIFT for ten cents, is that MORE FREE than a GIFT that costs you twenty cents? No, it is of LOWER COST, anything that is actually free can not cost you anything, if it costs a tiny amount we may say it is free “for all practical purposes” or something similar but it is not truly free. There are no free people on this Earth, there are only some who are less oppressed than others, the inhabitants of the USA are becoming MORE OPPRESSED with each passing minute.
Indeed, I can’t believe he didn’t mention the Georgia ticket.
Plenty of old democrats die, but some of them keep voting......
Democrats are gone. Communists have taken the spot.
Who would have thought “hope and change” meant segregation and the rise of a modern Jim Crow—with Blacks as oppressors?
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