Posted on 11/12/2003 5:52:58 AM PST by GaryL
While an increasingly angry and alienated Democratic Party spouts gloom and doom, the picture appears bright for conservatives and the GOP. Beginning with Arnold Schwarzeneggers victory in California and following last weeks electoral successes in Kentucky and Mississippi, Republicans are consolidating their hold on state and national political offices.
With President Bushs signature of the partial-birth abortion ban, CBS's decision to drop its politicized hatchet job of Ronald Reagan -- one of Americas most beloved presidents -- and the recovering economy spurred by Bushs hefty tax cuts, the American ''right'' seems to be on a roll. Meanwhile, the Democrats seem to be careening further leftward -- and backward -- toward pacifism, pessimism, irrelevance and political suicide.
These are not just short-term GOP gains. While liberal Democrats feverishly try to spin away the reality, the truth is that conservative ideals of entrepreneurship, individual responsibility, smaller government, lower taxes, strong national defense and traditional values have become increasingly mainstream during the past 20 years; the recent GOP successes simply reflect that fact.
In 1983 -- Reagan's third year as president -- Democrats controlled Congress and 23 more state legislatures than did the Republicans. Today the GOP holds both houses of Congress and five more state legislatures than do the Democrats.
That same year, there were 18 more Democrat governors than Republicans; today (after California, Kentucky and Mississippi) there will be 29 GOP governors (five more Republicans than Democrats). Also, the U.S. House had 103 more Democrats than Republicans; today Republicans lead by 24 members.
The Democratic strategy of turning the recent Southern elections into referenda on Bush also failed miserably. In Kentucky, Democrats tried to link GOP nominee Rep. Ernie Fletcher with the ''Bush economy,'' while in Mississippi, Democratic incumbent Ronnie Musgrove tried to attack the Washington ties of former Republican National Committee Chairman Haley Barbour. Republicans won both elections handily.
With these two wins -- which follow GOP gains in Alabama, Georgia and South Carolina -- Republicans have recaptured the growing, dynamic South.
Soon 60 percent of Americans will live in states run by Republicans. With the exception of ''left'' coast enclaves such as Los Angeles and San Francisco, and parts of the ''granola'' Northwest, the GOP continues to dominate the West as well. The only true liberal Democrat stronghold nationally appears to be the Northeast rust belt.
For those who may not have noticed -- the GOP is becoming our dominant party coast to coast.
To bring the point home, U.S. Sen. Zell Miller, D-Ga., who recently endorsed Bushs reelection, titled his new book about the Democrats, A National Party No More. Miller argues that the Democratic Party has become dominated by parochial and extreme left-wing interest groups that are pulling the party further away from the mainstream even while America has shifted rightward since Sept. 11. He adds, ``Its obvious that a train wreck is about to happen with the Democratic Party.''
The GOP future looks good as America's youth also seems to be increasingly conservative. Despite the predominance of left-leaning academics on college campuses, surveys reveal that freshmen are far more traditional than many of their counterculture professors or liberal baby-boomer parents. A national Harvard University poll in October found that 61 percent of college students approved of Bushs job performance.
As the economy improves, Democrats will pin their hopes for success in 2004 on a Bush failure in Iraq. But hurting Bush on Iraq is not good either for Democrats or America. Most Americans -- regardless of party -- are rooting for victory in Iraq. Cynical defeatism in time of war should backfire and hurt Democrats.
Republicans are on the move across America. Democrats need to recognize and adapt to that, or they may find themselves trampled by the stampeding elephants of the GOP.
Paul Crespo is a public-policy analyst and an adjunct faculty member at the University of Miami.
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You would offer a position to Sharpton? Geeez. The guy provides comic relief in the primaries, but surely nobody would put this guy in power. He's a race baiter, a bigoted anti-Semite and a Jesse Jackson wannabe extortionist. Such a move would be tantamout to offering David Duke a government job to shut him up.
The Dems don't have the guts to call Sharpton what he is and throw him out of the party. That's their albatross (or one of them).
Bears repeating.
...until the illegals and their children acquire voter-registration forms.
--Boris
Ed Rendell and Bill Richardson plus Janet Napolitano are prez vp frontrunners for 2008 (assuming no Hill). And Mark Warner. Blago sees himself running for prez, it's true . . .
Her approval rating may have slipped from its peak, but her numbers are still relatively strong compared to other governors across the country. According to EPIC/M-R-A here are her approval numbers from their last three polls:
June: 65%
August: 70%
October: 60%
And a GOP that's maybe just starting to recover from McKernanism.
Yes for the real states.Probably includes Puerto Rico,Guam, American Samoa etc.
This, in addition to activist left-wing federal judges, is the trump card of the Left. The enemy still controls the machinery that molds the hearts and minds of youth and reports the news of the day - repeating a subtle and not-so-subtle message that all good things flow from a benevolent socialist state.
Perhaps that's why leftists viciously attack even the slightest attempts to appoint non-leftist judges, reform public school systems, and bring ideological balance to college campuses and the news media. It is on these issues especially that we on the right must give as good as we get: the Marquis of Queensbury rules that we've followed for so long in the political arena no longer apply when we are in a fight for the survival of America as we know it.
I have seen a lot of scary angry Dems trying to outdo themselves in appealing to scary angry liberals.
The Dems should grab the immigration issue. It is there for the taking.
The idea that the population is shifting rightward is, at the very least, an exaggeration. The majority get their social and political beliefs from the tube. I liken the trends in American politics to a small pendulum swinging on a larger pendulum. The small pendulum may swing left or right, but the larger pendulum is swinging ever to the left with no sign of halting soon, and much of the Republican success is due to their willingness and ability to accommodate that swing. It is more accurate to say that the Republicans, the people, and the Democrats are all swinging to the left, with Democratic activists swinging just a little too far.
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