I’ve been busy watching the election coverage this evening. As a registered Democrat, it’s been fairly depressing. It will be interesting (“may you live in interesting times”) to see what comes of it. Certainly the conservative pundits on the tube have been nattering already about permanent tax cuts (while at the same time somehow funding a war in Iraq), judicial approvals (flushing a wave of conservatives into the judiciary for the next two or three decades), and an easy time for whatever agenda Bush chooses to advance.<\/p>\n
Of course, without a super-majority 60 votes in the Senate, the GOP still faces some brakes on its agenda. But it’s looking like it will be the GOP setting the agenda, regardless.<\/p>\n
At the same time, it’s a critical point for the Dems. It’s easy to say it was all about Homeland Security, and there’s some truth there. At the same time, the Democratic message was wildly unfocussed during this election. Too much decades-old boilerplate was trotted out, not helped by the two clear opportunities for new blood — New Jersey and Minnesota — being filled by creaking Old Guard liberals. If the Democrats are to mount a challenge to the GOP in 2004, they need two things:<\/p>\n
1. A self-destructing Republican Congress and Administration, a la <\/i>the Covenant with America GOP of the ’94 election.<\/p>\n
2. A new message to present an actually attractive<\/i> alternative to the general public. The Democratic Party needs to reinvent itself, to somehow maintain its foundation in liberal values while still showing that it is not just a party of tax-and-spend and multi-culti irrelevance. (Hint: leaping to nominate Walter Mondale as a senatorial candidate is not the way to go here.)<\/p>\n
As part of #2, let me urge folks of the Democratic\/Liberal tradition to consider their reaction over the coming days. If you come across with squawking sky-is-falling apocalyptic imagery, you’re part of the problem, because that is not <\/i>convincing to the general public. Listen to the voters — that is, after all, what the liberal <\/i>tradition would have us do. Accept your lumps. Resolve to do better, not to sit there and bemoan the monied\/bloodthirsty yahoos that voted GOP this time around. <\/p>\n
Show that you’re interested <\/i>in being relevant, and, maybe, you will be.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I’ve been busy watching the election coverage this evening. As a registered Democrat, it’s been fairly depressing. It will be interesting (“may you live in interesting times”) to see what…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_robots_follow":"","_seopress_robots_imageindex":"","_seopress_robots_snippet":"","_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_robots_breadcrumbs":"","_seopress_robots_freeze_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_custom_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_canonical":"","_seopress_social_fb_title":"","_seopress_social_fb_desc":"","_seopress_social_fb_img":"","_seopress_social_fb_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_height":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_title":"","_seopress_social_twitter_desc":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_height":0,"_seopress_redirections_value":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled_regex":"","_seopress_redirections_logged_status":"","_seopress_redirections_param":"","_seopress_redirections_type":0,"_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3504","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics-law"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":33153,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2013\/04\/12\/why-do-social-conservatives-feel-abandoned-by-the-gop.html","url_meta":{"origin":3504,"position":0},"title":"Why do social conservatives feel abandoned by the GOP?","author":"***Dave","date":"Fri 12-Apr-13 9:35am","format":false,"excerpt":"Perhaps because, officially, the GOP is trying to be appear less theocratic, because the party leadership realizes that loses the party votes in national elections (and rallies national support against them in key state elections).But it's not actually affecting how GOP lawmakers and executives are continuing to pursue, with unabated\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":10721,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2006\/11\/10\/ideology_vs_consensus_vs.html","url_meta":{"origin":3504,"position":1},"title":"Ideology vs. Consensus vs. Competency vs. Corruption","author":"***Dave","date":"Fri 10-Nov-06 8:07am","format":false,"excerpt":"The post-mortems abound ... It's fascinating watching the debate going on within the GOP about who \"lost\" the election. Everyone has their own axe to grind in this, and the...","rel":"","context":"In "Elections 2006"","block_context":{"text":"Elections 2006","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/politics-law\/elections-2006"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":9751,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2006\/11\/07\/jinx.html","url_meta":{"origin":3504,"position":2},"title":"Jinx!","author":"***Dave","date":"Tue 7-Nov-06 10:08am","format":false,"excerpt":"I know it is rank superstition, but I have been very, very, very reluctant to express my predictions for this particular election -- since I am certain that as soon...","rel":"","context":"In "Elections 2006"","block_context":{"text":"Elections 2006","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/politics-law\/elections-2006"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":49167,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2015\/01\/06\/watching-the-house-gop-and-munching-popcorn.html","url_meta":{"origin":3504,"position":3},"title":"Watching the House GOP (and munching popcorn)","author":"***Dave","date":"Tue 6-Jan-15 11:19am","format":false,"excerpt":"As with so many of the zanies that pop up from the TP wing of the GOP, my feelings on Louie Gohmert are mixed.On the one hand, if he took over as Speaker, his agenda might finally appall enough moderates amongst the citizenry to vote the bums out in 2016.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":22966,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2011\/10\/04\/unblogged-bits-tue-4-oct-11-1730.html","url_meta":{"origin":3504,"position":4},"title":"Unblogged Bits (Tue. 4-Oct-11 1730)","author":"***Dave","date":"Tue 4-Oct-11 5:30pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Links (most recent first) that caught my eye, but did not warrant full-blown blog entries .... Mount Vesuvius gases accused of painting the town red - Interesting. (And, yes, I need to get back to working on those photos ...) Stop Snitchin: Fox News And Wall Street Banks Hustle To\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Potpourri"","block_context":{"text":"Potpourri","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/potpourri"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":25031,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2012\/01\/02\/blaming-others-for-ones-misdeeds-gop-2012-edition.html","url_meta":{"origin":3504,"position":5},"title":"Blaming others for one's misdeeds (GOP 2012 Edition)","author":"***Dave","date":"Mon 2-Jan-12 6:00pm","format":false,"excerpt":"It will be fascinating to watch the GOP blame Obama for not being \"post-partisan\" and healing the nation and bringing everyone together in Washington to find common answers for our various challengers ... when he's (a) been opposed tooth-and-nail by GOP leaders who very baldly stated that their number one\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3504","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3504"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3504\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3504"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3504"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3504"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}