Wiring the Vast Left-Wing Conspiracy [Or: The on-going demise of the Dem Party] (NYT)

The NY Times Sunday Magazine ^ | July 25, 2004 | MATT BAI

[summer]

There is, of course, a striking disconnect between the [Dem] party's bedrock voters: laborers, racial minorities and immigrants, many of whose faith in sweeping social programs has been badly shaken and who tend to be more culturally conservative than the well-off citizens of New York and Silicon Valley. But if the [Dem fundraiser] multimillionaires harbor even the slightest doubts about their qualifications for solving social and geopolitical ills, they don't express it.

No, of course they don't express it - they are not communicators.

I really believe the Dems as a party are finished because their leaders stopped caring, a long time ago, about their own rank and file party members. They place too much emphasis on seizing power instead of problem solving.

They also seem to reject, absolutely, a bottom up model of thinking. Everything with them comes from the top down.

The Republican Party seems very different to me. It does not reject the ideas of its members. Nor does it function solely from a top down model. And, it seems to have more of a core belief system, with a sharper focus on the issues and problems confronting us.

The Dem Party seems limited to only selling to voters the idea that the GOP leader currently in power should be out. There is never a vote "FOR" emphasis in that Dem Party, probably because, as the article points out, the Dem Party has no message.

By 2012, I don't think there will even be a "Dem Party" anymore. But, I believe there will be a number of smaller, new political parties -- much like the way specialty magazines and cable tv have now totally segmented a marketplace once dominated by a few general interest periodicals (like LIFE) and network tv. No more though. POlitics will eventually catch up to that new model. And, the Dems will rarely win an election when it happens. Much like now.

[summer]

Interesting article. A long read, but, a big picture.

[jocon307]

''Man,'' he said, ''that's all it took to buy the country?''


What a pig. These rich liberals are all textbook cases of "projection", seeing ones own failings in others. I highly recommend that we do not "sell" our country to the Democrats. Not now, not ever.

[spokeshave]

Hey Rappaport..... try the dems solution.....Swedish taxes on Ethiopian wages.

[summer]

Also -- Moveon is a turn off for swing voters, IMO, because of what the article described here:

As a reactionary force, it also demonizes Republicans with an apocalyptic fury. MoveOn was castigated by its critics for displaying on its site an amateur ad comparing Bush to Hitler. Lately, MoveOn has called, repeatedly, for Congress to censure Bush ...

This is not appealing to an independent.

[summer]

Also -- Moveon is a turn off for swing voters, IMO, because of what the article described here:

As a reactionary force, it also demonizes Republicans with an apocalyptic fury. MoveOn was castigated by its critics for displaying on its site an amateur ad comparing Bush to Hitler. Lately, MoveOn has called, repeatedly, for Congress to censure Bush ...

This is not appealing to an independent.

[summer]

Swedish taxes on Ethiopian wages.

???? I see I missed something here!

[Tall_Texan]

The Democrats stand for nothing except raw naked political power.

The Republicans meanwhile stand for:

shrinking the size of government
cutting federal spending
defunding agencies like the NEA
promoting pro-life candidates
stemming the tide of illegal immigration
upholding the Second Amendment from left-wing gun-grabbers
upholding the First Amendment freedom of political advertising for all
winning the War on Terror.

At this rate, both parties may be dinosaurs by 2050.

[LiberalBassTurds]

Great article. Having dealt with many of the major players in the VC industry in Silicon Valley it always tickles me when I read articles about their support of the Democrats. In the Board Room they are the most Republican SOB's you could ever meet. Perform or quit is their modus operandi. They don't waste time on people who can't deliver and they won't continue to fund companies that aren't growing at their forecasted rates.

Since the social plans the Dems are famous for are not easily measured for effectiveness one has to wonder about their motivations. There are some obvious things like easily acquired work visas for their imported technical workforce, to tax breaks on R&D, etc., etc.

I'm too tired to think about it more deeply but it's just darn funny when you know the way these guys function in real life.

LBT

-=-=-

[upchuck]

At this rate, both parties may be dinosaurs by 2050.

The Scottish Jurist and Historian Sir Alex Fraser Tyler published a collection of lectures in 1801. He advanced a theory of democracy based on historical observation:

"A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can exist only until voters discover that they can vote themselves largesses from the public treasury. From that time on, the majority always votes for the candidate promising the most benefits from the public treasury, with the result that a democracy always collapses over loose fiscal policy, always followed by a dictatorship.

"The average age of the world's great civilizations has been 200 years. These nations have progressed through this sequence: From bondage to spiritual faith; from spiritual faith to great courage; from courage to liberty; from liberty to abundance; from abundance to selfishness; from selfishness to complacency; from complacency to apathy; from apathy to dependency; from dependency back again to bondage."

Maybe Sir Tyler was right?

[shrinkermd]

Thanks for posting the entire article. It took time and it is appreciated.

Rush Limbaugh has been saying the liberals have no real substance for some time. He is right and the author of this article is right.

I found it interesting Republican Jewish intellectuals and supporters are described by the main stream press as "neocons." When almost every hitter and contributor to this new change in this article has a Jewish surname, no mention is made.

IMHO the glue that binds all the liberal elites is an intense dislike for traditional values and mores and a marked antipathy or barely restrained tolerance for religious belief. We are in an undeclared culture war and the outcome is yet to be determined.

[Fenris6]

"They place too much emphasis on seizing power instead of problem solving."

Yup - I left the Democratic Party when I came to the realization that their lust for power trumped any love they had for this nation.

Good article too.

[woofer]

I really believe the Dem's as a party are finished because their leaders stopped caring, a long time ago, about their own rank and file party members. They place too much emphasis on seizing power instead of problem solving.

I agree, summer. But with one caveat:

Over the past four years, nay all the way back to 1993, the Dem's have sought to keep, retake, overcome, whatever, the power base in Washington for the purposes of raising taxes and to "punish" the rich, while shielding the foibles of the standard bearer from public scrutiny.

[CasearianDaoist]

Yes, but the real meaning of this article is that the Rats now see that they need to reinvest billion in their disinformation machine and bring it to new venues such as the internet. Conservatives should not be too sanguine about this as the Rats may well succeed. One must never forget that a large portion of the electorate is exceedingly gullible and that the Rats have much deeper pockets then we do. They also have absolutely no scruples. We should not be crowing about the pending demise of the Democrat party. These people survived the Civil War, for Pete's sake.

If Kerry wins these people will be so emboldened that it is truly frightening to contemplate what they will do.

It is time for Conservatives to take the gloves off. THis means exposing the socialist agenda for what it is and in no uncertain tone.

[CasearianDaoist]

Yes, but the real meaning of this article is that the Rats now see that they need to reinvest billion in their disinformation machine and bring it to new venues such as the internet. Conservatives should not be too sanguine about this as the Rats may well succeed. One must never forget that a large portion of the electorate is exceedingly gullible and that the Rats have much deeper pockets then we do. They also have absolutely no scruples. We should not be crowing about the pending demise of the Democrat party. These people survived the Civil War, for Pete's sake.

If Kerry wins these people will be so emboldened that it is truly frightening to contemplate what they will do.

It is time for Conservatives to take the gloves off. THis means exposing the socialist agenda for what it is and in no uncertain tone.

[Graymatter]

Fine, we've broken their hold on the legislature -- now how do we get them out of the universities and the media?

[HateBill]

But notice how the article did not give even one example of a "progressive" idea that these funders were going to promulgate. The *only* message they are funding is a variation of "I hate Bush," I hate Christians," "I hate gun-owners," "tax the rich," "two Americas."

What is the "progressive" message today other than hatred? How is that going to win over even the gullible?

[hedgie]

As the old union bosses and factional leaders who dominated the Democratic Party in the 20th century file into the FleetCenter this week, waving signs and hooting for their heroes, be sure to take a long, last look.

The Democratic Party of the machine age, so long dominant in American politics, could be holding its own Irish wake near Boston's North End. The power is already shifting -- not just within the party, but away from it altogether. By the time this election year ends, George Soros will have contributed more than $13 million to the independent political groups known as 527's. (The term is shorthand for the section of the tax code that makes them legal.) For this reason, Republicans insist that the 74-year-old Soros, who may become the largest single political contributor in history, has resolved to buy the Democratic Party.

At least the Steelworkers, The Auto Makers and the rest of the union guys had the guts to prevail in a war. This Soros funded 527 Deaniac crew is going to sink our ship if the country tries to depend on them in wartime. I can't imagine a worse force to unleash in a country that is fighting for its future against an implacable foe.

[snooker]

" What is the "progressive" message today other than hatred? How is that going to win over even the gullible?"

BC turned all the dim winning issues into losers. And anyone who would vote for these losers is likely a loser as well. Some notable losers ...

Gun control got wiped out by CCWs
Abortion has been wiped out by technology
Welfare got wiped out by reform
Forest fires wiped out the tree huggers
The sun is doing a number on the global warming crowd

... and tax the rich is being killed off by the economy.

So what's left.

Security is the big issue this election IMHO. Nobody wants to get blowed up, not even dims. The terrorists changed everything, no matter how much the media try to tell you otherwise.

[MoralSense]

Uh-huh. And all this big-money entrepreneurship goes to fund exactly those ideas that drive lunch-bucket Dems away from the party in the first place. The Dems can do one of two things: Drop the gay agenda and the abortion agenda, and lose the radicals. Or embrace the radical agenda and lose the middle class. You can't parse that difference.