[KC_for_Freedom]

Thanks for the watermelon explaination. As I read it I remembered having heard it before. Perhaps it was a senior moment (that I have from time to time).

My main thesis in categorizing has been that the democratic party is made up of a diverse group without common concerns. They are joined primarily by a desire to govern from the left. So you have envrionmentalists of all stripes joining minorities, illegal immigrants, homosexuals, jews, and out and out socialists. Of course their common agenda was to fleece the country's wealthy and mooch. The environmentalists are a strange ally in this group, because they don't get much out of socialism. No socialist country took care of the environment, so much of what they do is on faith. (The kind of faith Michael Crichton is talking about.)

Then you get strange results like the Sierra Club voting to remain neutral about unfettered immigration, when immigrants are stressing the social fabric and the environment. Likewise you see Nader running for office and stripping enough votes from Gore to hurt the democrats because the democrats are not strong enough on the environment.

Finaly you have clear thinkers like Carri-Okie proposing market based solutions to the environment which environmentalists cannot even look at for fear of disrupting the coalition.

[PatrickHenry]

My main thesis in categorizing has been that the democratic party is made up of a diverse group without common concerns. They are joined primarily by a desire to govern from the left.

Another common concern is that they all deny reality, one way or another. Socialism will make us happy, taxation will make us prosperous, unionism will make us productive, pacifism will bring peace, disarming will make us secure, diversity is strength, self-esteem is a right, poverty can be outlawed, etc. In these and maybe hundreds of other ways they are characterized by the delusion that wishing for something will make it so. Presumably those at the top of that foul heap are aware that it's all lies, but it's their gravy train. Yet even a few of them are probably fooled.

There's some of that in the Republican party too, but nowhere near as much.