[Stultis]

Whenever ANY Republican makes an outrageous comment, the first thing the media does is go around to all the leading Republicans and ask what their opinion was of the rant. They did it with Lott, they do it with Delay, Dan Burton, etc. And the media specifically does this to Republicans so they can attach the Republican Party to the remarks of one individuals comments. The media never does this with the Democrats. [...] Kennedy had nothing to lose with his diatribe and the media will immunize the rest of the party by not questioning other Democrats about it.

An absolutely true and perspicuous observation. However there is a silver lining to that cloud. This media double-standard has created a kind of Darwinian selection pressure that has allowed far left extremists to prosper within the 'Rat Party, whereas Republicans have been driven to marginalize extremists on their side. Since the electoral margin between the two parties is closed among moderates and independents, who are turned off by extremists of either wing, the result is that the GOP is poised to be the majority party for a generation hence.

[maica]

An absolutely true and perspicuous observation. However there is a silver lining to that cloud. This media double-standard has created a kind of Darwinian selection pressure that has allowed far left extremists to prosper within the 'Rat Party, whereas Republicans have been driven to marginalize extremists on their side. Since the electoral margin between the two parties is closed among moderates and independents, who are turned off by extremists of either wing, the result is that the GOP is poised to be the majority party for a generation hence.

Your comment deserves its own vanity post.

For years I have had an image of the bell curve of left/right as the disc or sphere-shaped weight on the end of a pendulum. The majority is in the middle just jostling along. When Reagan was elected the force that had been swinging the pendulum to the left began reversing. With the fall of the Soviet Empire the speed increased as more people moved to the right. This direction is still in play for many reasons but one of my visual images is of the extreme right getting squeezed off the edge of this circle to fling off into space. This makes moving to the right palatable for many more voters. Since the pendulum does not change its shape, while the number of right/left does change, what happens is that those left behind on the left become outliers. I see Hillary and Ted over there saying where is everybody?