Posted on 12/22/2004 9:58:17 AM PST by freespirited
In the new issue of Blueprint Magazine (the DLC's house organ) Al From and Bruce Reed take yet another whack at convincing Democrats that moving to the middle is the only way to stop the party's slide.
From and Reed argue that the first thing the party must do is to face up to some ugly political facts:
For the first time since before the New Deal, Republicans are now the majority party from the top of the ballot to the bottom. That's reality -- and we delude ourselves if we take false comfort in the closeness of our loss.
This was the second national election in a row -- 2002 was the first -- in which Republicans won a majority of the votes cast. That broke a string of three presidential elections and three congressional elections in a row in which neither party won a majority. Moreover, this election was the latest chapter in a four-decade swing to the Republicans that began after Lyndon Johnson's 1964 landslide victory.
The dimensions of that swing -- and our decline -- are staggering. In1964, Johnson won 60.6 percent of the popular vote and 90 percent of the electoral votes, and Democrats held 2-to-1 advantages in both the House of Representatives and the Senate and among governors and state legislators. Today, the Republicans not only control the White House and both houses of Congress, but a majority of statehouses and state legislatures. In the 10 presidential elections since 1964, the Democratic candidate has won a majority of the popular vote only once -- Jimmy Carter won 50.1 percent in 1976. President Clinton slowed our slide in the 1990s, but even he never reached that magic 50 percent mark. The trend in the vote for Congress has been the same. After 40 straight years of domination, Democrats have not won a majority of the cumulative national vote for the House since 1992.
In 1964, according to the University of Michigan, more than one-half of all Americans -- 52 percent -- identified themselves as Democrats, compared with 25 percent who identified themselves as Republicans and 24 percent as independents. In the 2004 election, party identification was dead even: 37 percent Democrat, 37 percent Republican, and 26 percent independent.
We cannot assume this trend will end on its own. We know the Republicans will do everything they can to keep it going. It is up to Democrats to stop it.
Analysts who believe changing demographics will lead to a new Democratic majority should take a careful look at this election. According to that theory, women and the increasing number of minority voters will lead to an emerging Democratic majority. In this election, the percentages of women and minorities in the electorate indeed increased. But President Bush made significant gains among both groups. He won white women by 11 percentage points, 10 points more than his 2000 margin. Among Hispanics, Bush cut a 27-point deficit in 2000 to just 9 points this time. In the critical battleground state of Ohio, Bush secured his victory by winning 16 percent of the African-American vote, nearly double what he won in 2000.
We got out our base, but our base is not what it once was. The biggest blow in this election is how badly we lost the middle class.
It's no surprise for Democrats to lose white men and evangelicals. But in this election, we also lost white women, married people, couples with children, high school graduates, college graduates, people over 30, and, by our estimate, voters in every annual household income category above $40,000. Our coalition consisted of high school dropouts (though we won them by only 1 point) and those with postgraduate educations. That coalition is not the foundation for building a durable Democratic majority.
Read the whole thing. It's a trenchant analysis of the electoral reality facing the Democrats today. From and Reed want the party to accept reality and adjust accordingly, but many in the base of the party either have their heads buried in the sand or worse: they want the party to march further to the left and into the wilderness. Electing Screamin' Howard Dean as Chairman of the DNC would almost certainly be a step in that direction.
The full From/Reed article is here:
http://www.ndol.org/ndol_ci.cfm?cp=1&kaid=127&subid=173&contentid=253054
Much of their base are belong to us.
Excellent point. I wonder how often you see someone on DU say "I used to be a Republican." We have plenty over here who used to be Dems.
ROTFLMAO
From and Reed are right, but its going to take another lost in 08' for the party to get it.
I have seen this a few times and would like to get the scoop on it.
Country of origin please... Can you use it in a sentence?... Are there other pronunciations?
A little help for historical reference. Thanks!
Self-inflicted genocide doesn't have the electoral appeal it once did, apparently.
apparently there are still democrats who are not part of the lunatic fringe consisting of DU'ers and the Kerry/Clinton camp.
"Much of their base are belong to us."
I needed that. Thanks.
I keep reading more of these insipid articles telling the democrats what they heed to do to recapture their former glory. Each article goes on and on and on about this and that and the other until they all boil down to the same advice: Lie about who you are. Lie about your true goals. Pretend to care about things you do not care about. Pretend-pretend-pretend. Fool people until they love you again.
I'm glad I'm not part of that party. I'm also happy and blessed that all we conservatives have to do to win is be exactly who we are.
It is from a poorly translated Japanese videogame that has become an immortal Internet catch phrase. Someone made a video using photoshopped pictures with "All your base are belong to us" somewhere in them. I thought it was quite funny.
Here is the link:
http://www.planettribes.com/allyourbase/AYB2.swf
So Democrats only win the under-educated and the overly educated. Goes to prove my theory that too much education makes one ignorant.
We need to quit posting info so the left can reforge themselves into something electable. Let them totter about and sink. :)
If we were in the water needing a floatation device the crew on the S.S. Democrat would be tossing us anvils.
No, no, The only problem the Democrats have is that their message isn't getting out.
They need to move to the left and toward true progressiveness, this will generate the news coverage they need to get their message out.
Good progressive, liberal Democrats need to keep giving it to America, only twice as hard, twice as loud and twice as liberal!
Here's the most recent FreeRepublic Lexicon I could locate (2002). This should help. http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/673536/posts
Yes! The DU posters are right, they need to get a "real" liberal party. None of the "centrists" like Kerry are allowed. Keep being loud and left wing, the louder the better. I'm sure the dems would pick up SO much more support.
I also don't think the Democrats are going to be able to rely on the "black vote" too much longer as more and more wake up to the "plantation" structure of their party. I look and hope for the day when voters are no longer subject to the analysis of "racial disparity".
The articles continue to recommend that the Democrats lie about who they are because any serious analysis would show that it would be much more detrimental to the Party to tell the truth. It's sort of like a thief trying to get a job at a bank. Telling the truth will surely do him no good.
Muleteam1
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