Completely agree, but my point was to the long-term situation. Sure there will be election hiccups, but the Republicans are in the driver's seat for the next 15 years (assuming they don't screw up too badly and that the Rats keep pandering to the fringe left).
If the Rats were smart they'd move to the right of Bush on many/most issues and then there'd be a political earthquake. Stay where they are in respect to environment, but pass sensible legislation (like ANWAR drilling and offshore natural gas drilling). Let go of the fringe abortion lobby and play it more mainstream (like abortion is ok for the first trimester only--anything else must be to save the life of the mother). Drop the gun issue and push more strict laws for violations of existing laws. Stop gov't increased spending and no new taxes. Kill earmarks. Stop illegal immigration.
The problem with that is where would the RATs get their funding? They are already losing to the Republicans and the fringe left won't fund that platform...so they'd be SOL for a few years. But needless to say they can't move that direction on nearly any of those issues because the fringe left won't let them. Unfortunatley, this allows the Republican party to drift left and buy votes from the middle because they know they have a lot of wiggle room and buying votes is easier and more fun than running a principled campaign and office.
If I were being paid $100,000 per year as an advisor to the Democrats, I would suggest that they do with their core constituents (gays and anti-war nuts) what the Republicans often do with their "static core": throwing them a bone or two but otherwise ignoring them. If I were a Democrat leader, I would focus on:
1) Term limits for abortion: politically speaking, a new federal law on this would probably cause the Supreme Court NOT to overturn Roe vs Wade. The Democrats can preemptively preserve Roe vs Wade with federal abortion term limit legislation and they could win in 2008 by consistently asking the Republicans why they are against term limits. The independents would melt away from the GOP at this point if the GOP then holds to a completely pro-life position.
I am not saying I would like this to happen so much as: this would be a politically intelligent move on the part of the Dems.
2) Federal anti-smoking legislation: 70% of Americans would favor smoking bans even in bars. 90% favor smoking bans in public buildings and restaurants. Majorities are in favor of a lot tougher restrictions. Democrats could split the Republicans down the middle on this, while Republican politicians might be too slow to get out of the line of fire and come out on the winning side. Only smokers care about "smokers' rights" and only 27% of American males smoke while only 21% of American females smoke.
I am sure there are other topics where the Dems, if they came to the right on the war on terror, could rip the Republicans to shreds...but my point is that they are not smart enough to even think of the ones above. They still seem to think that being pro-gay and pro-terrorist is going to get them somewhere. They are ideologically wired to be "against the white heterosexual male"...so they can't even begin to think that maybe they could gain power by concentrating on other topics.
Good post.
You're right, if the Dems were smart, they would move more to the center/right. It would be good for the country to have two strong parties competing for votes. Competition never hurts, and I think would help keep Republican party further to the right.
Don't see it happening, though.