Actually, Perlstein tends to be one of the few people from DUllsville who will actually come on here and debate.
His problem, and it is one he shares with Michael Moore and other left partisans, is that he hates Bush. Hatred never won an election. His reasoning in above article, that Bush has led Republicans to a land of power-mongering for power-mongering's sake, is mere rationalization for his dislike of Bush and the Republican Party.
It does no good to wrap up one's dislike of Republicans because they are trying to win elections. That's what political parties are supposed to do, Rick. Citing Madison's Federalist 51 against Republicans does no good if you don't cite it against those who supported Roosevelt, Truman, or Lincoln.
People compete for power in democracies. It's what they do. Rick, you don't like what Republicans are doing because they are becoming very good at it. Back in the old days, when the Party was run by a bunch of Country Club types, we actually rolled over when people like Rick said we were a bunch of racists who should support Democrats to prove how virtuous we were. Thankfully, the country club set is dying out and being replaced by fighters like Tom DeLay and Rick Santorum (and Arnold, who uses different means to achieve the same end-victory).
In short, there was a time when Democrats could sieze the moral high ground and insist that Republicans jump through hoops to be as virtuous as they were. Of course, it was bullcrap. Hell, in 1964, it was Republicans in the Senate and the House who gave LBJ the margin of victory in the Civil Rights debate. Unfortunately, that idiot Goldwater had to "stand on principle" (as Perlstein would prefer, of course) and killed us with the black community for the next fifty years.
In the intervening decades, the internet has arisen and power has swept out of the editorial rooms of the great House Organs of the Democratic Party, the New York Times, the Washington Post, and the news divisions of the three Alphabet Networks. In short, the Ministry of Truth the peddled the Conventional Wisdom of the Upper West Side of Manhattan, Georgetown, and Bel Air is collapsing of its own weight.
People aren't listening anymore. They are assuming that the liberal media is lying to them. There is a reason the FOX News Channel is as popular as it is.
Strategically, this is bad for Democrats. You'll notice they got a dead cat bounce out of their convention? There was no optimism there; rather there was an undercurrent of palpable loathing of Bush, his family, and his dog Barney. The media tried to spin this the best they could for their chosen favorite, John Kerry. It didn't work.
Common Tator long ago made a convincing argument on these boards that the media doesn't have the power to move elections that they think they do. It will take a while for that to sink in. When Bush wins this November, media folk will be very confused. After all, everyone they know will have voted for Kerry.
Be Seeing You,
Chris