Posted on 10/21/2004 11:17:16 AM PDT by PhillyJ
What will the left do if they lose big? I don't know whether they will collapse into sulliness, go crazy and get violent or what. If the loss is big enough they may have to consider that they did something wrong. Will they think they wern't obnoxious enough?(Strong and forceful enough, the way they would think of it)
Every time the left has lost, they have come back, and usually more to the left. The democratic party of old will not come back. Ask Nancy Pelosi.
Doesn't matter as long as they lose.
If they get violent, violence can be used to supress them.
If they don't understand their failure, they will continue to make the same mistakes.
I don't want the DemonRats as the opposition party. I want the Libertarians (wacky as they are) to be the opposition party.
I'm not too worried about it. They should lose big...given the success IMO of the GOP controlled Congress/Senate the past years. With the leadership in there like Roy Blunt and Hastert, along with the President...it can only bring more good.
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!
Good one.
I definitely want us to win by a big enough margin that Kerry has NO CHOICE but to write that concession speech, but I really think that we are more on our toes when the dems are nipping at our heels! Anyone think I'm out to lunch with this?
Yeah ... the "newbies" are irritating. Evidently they feel FR is a chat forum ... catch a clue idiots.
It's hard to say. I don't think the rank and file will get notably violent, though they will be more vitriolic than they are now (and that's hard to imagine)!
As far as leadership grows, there will be a contingent that will probably rationalize that the reason they lost was because they were not liberal enough. This sets up last season't 'Deanaholics' to adopt a 'I told you so" posture and make a real run at the party's ideological leadership - that is, be more unabashedly liberal.
Don't be shocked to see Dr Dean surface again in two years for a 2008 run.
Hilly & the gang will characterize themselves as the alternative - 'New Democrats' that were left behind after the 1996 election, that the national party downplayed in 2000 and 2004. That sets her up as Dr Dean's nemesis on the campaign trail.
Notice that I am ignoring Edwards because after the 2004 election he will be damaged goods, and people in the party will quickly start wondering aloud how that goofball even got close in 2004. My early side-bet prediction is that while the consensus is that Dean was 'damaged goods' ever since 11:30pm the night of the 2004 Iowa caucus, it will end up being Edwards as damaged goods in any future national race.
This puts Hilly in a strong position in 2008 for her party nomination.
Republicans, conservatives, and Freepers should take note: just as the loons in the fringe left will marginalize themselves by saying that the party is not liberal enough, the fringe right on our side can marginalize themselves (and the party) if they succeed and push the party further rightward.
Bush & Rove and the gang realize that the USA electorate is not too strongly conservative, nor is it too strongly liberal. By best evaluation is that most people instinctively are fairly traditionalist and slightly right-leaning. Any perception of extremity freaks them out.
The vote has almost nothing to do with people sleeping soundly at night. That's selfish and in our dangerous times puts our nation at peril.
Our voters need to have the maturity and clarity of mind that escapes our most liberal friends. If they don't they will find themselves as marginalized in government by the fringy left.
From what Kerry's been saying, it doesn't matter if the margin is 0.2 percent for Bush or 20 percent for Bush. He's going to declare victory and throw the election into the courts. I wouldn't plan on hearing that concession speech any time soon, if ever.
You,re right. That is what I thought! Please enlighten me o wise one.
P4Fun, you are quite right, that has kept me confident for the entire campaign... Listen, these liberal crazies are losing ground. They are so far left, that they cannot even see straight. Keep the guys like Blunt and DeLay up top, and we will be fine... Teddy-boy and Edwards and the rest of the rif-raf won't be here much longer, I have faith in America...
And what is this about the newbies? I have only been around for (just over) a year... Is there something I am doing wrong?
Exactly!! Blunt especially...his ability to get work done across party lines has been a model that other political leaders should take note of *cough*Pelosi*cough*. With DeLay and Hastert up there with him, I know we're in good hands.
The Democratic party is following the path of the Whigs.
The basic syndrome is, "What we have been doing is not working, so it must not be working because we are not doing it hard/earnestly/viciously enough." The reality is that it is not working because it is wrong, i.e., it is out of step with the bulk of the electorate. But that is not something the leadership can bear to consider. So they do what is killing them - and do twice as much of it - and kill themselves twice as fast!
One of two things will happen - relative quickly - if there is a very large Republican victory.
(1)The Democratic extremist leadership will be ousted by the party in favor for something just left of the RINO Repubs
OR
(2) a very big portion of the Democratic party (the rational fly-over-country members) will move to the Republican party, make common cause with the left end of the Repubs and after a brief period of Super-Republican rule(near one-party rule - similar to the democratic Roosevelt era from 1936 to HST administration) the Republicans party split into two new parties. Each of the new parties will try to pick off frustrated Libertarians and other splinter sects, with the Dem-Rino faction going for the Libertarian drug advocates and isolationists, and the Rep-Right going for the economic libertarians and the liberty faction - pro-gun, anti-NEA, stay-out-of-my-life faction.
IF on the other hand Lurch should somehow manage to pull off a coup and gain power ?????
Well, what is likely to happen is a Bush electoral landslide (victory in New Hampshire, Ohio, Florida, Iowa, Wisconsin, Minnesota), and a pick-up of 5 seats for the Republicans in the Senate.
In order to get his Supreme Court nominees when they come up (several justices - Rehnquist, O'Connor, Stevens - may retire if they are assured their party will be able to replace them), the Senate GOP may use the "nuclear option" to end the filibuster. By installing a solidly conservative Supreme Court, Bush and the GOP will have turned the social issues (to wit: abortion) into judicial matters, and Roe v. Wade will gradually float to the top of the judicial docket, where it will finally be disposed of judicially. When judges do things, it is less politically damaging for the party to which those judges happen to belong.
Starting on November 3rd, the Democratic Party will become a much more reformed, disciplined place. This election is the "Pickett's Charge" of the Liberal Left/Kennedy/Deanite wing of the Democratic Party: right into the guns, to be chewed up over national security.
What will remain is the solid control and promise of steady ;eadership from the Centrist, pro-war Clinton New Democrats. They currently control the party apparatus, and will push out all of the Kerryites come November 3rd. President Clinton and Senator Clinton are the moderate rock stars at the center of the party. Dispirited Dems will flock to their banner. Unlike the Pelosi lunatic crowd, you aren't going to see Hillary and Bill Clinton out there campaigning against the War. You'll see them silent in public, and supporting President Bush in the Senate and in the background, not out of love for Bush, but to get the war won. For the Democrats to be able to play their strongest hand, domestic social policy, the country needs to be at peace. For the country to be at peace, the US has to have pacified Iraq and be perceived as having won the War on Terror. From November 3rd onward, watch the Clintons, with unfettered control of the Party, force the party into a passively pro-war stance, silence the shrieking pacifists and defeatists, and solidifiying their power base.
The Democratic Party will change, alright. This election will make it a much more tightly controlled and focused entity, under Clinton New Democrat leadership. This election will be good for the Clintons, since it will fatally wound the Kennedy wing of the party.
Re: Dems losing big. Lord, hear our prayer.
Let's fantasize for a minute and pretend that Bush wins in a blowout. You know what'll happen?
Listen closely:
If Bush wins big in the Electoral College, there is no way Hillary Clinton will ever get to run for President.
After another 4 years of Bush, both sides will have to nominate someone new. Cheney's too old to run for the Pubs in 2008, and I doubt he even has the desire.
There is NO WAY the Democrats are going to give Hillary the nomination in 2008 after losing two elections. They will see that election as their golden opportunity to get back into power, and they will pick someone who has a chance of winning. They are NOT going to gamble on Dr. Quinn, Socialized Medicine Woman of all people. I don't even think they'll risk giving her the nod for Veep. She's just too risky. They love her in New York but the other 49 states see her for the raging left-winger harpy she is.
They'll pick a *man*, someone who's been a good Democrat and has lived clean, not wildly liberal but not so conservative that he turns off his base. However, he'll have to be conservative enough to make middle of the road Republicans happy. This election will teach them that the most they can ever expect to get into the White House is Liberal Lite.
Someone like Zell Miller, perhaps. (Not Zell himself, but on his level politically.)
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