Politics Looking For Affirmation?
posted by on November 13 at 10:43 AM
Don’t look here, Democrats:
Democrats have been quick to claim that 2006 will be remembered as the end of a conservative era. No one doubts that the midterm election was a rejection of President Bush’s policies in Iraq and of the Republicans’ style of governance. But was it really a rejection of conservatism itself? It will take future elections to prove the Democrats’ claim.What the election was not, in the view of strategists in both parties, was a powerful affirmation of the Democratic Party, despite its takeover of the House and Senate. One post-election survey, conducted for the liberal groups Democracy Corps and the Campaign for America’s Future, found that both Republicans and Democrats emerged from the contest with negative images.
“This is not an election where one party went down and the other party went up,” said Stan Greenberg, whose firm conducted the survey on election night and the night after. “The story still has to be written on how this period becomes a period for Democratic dominance.”
Agree, actually. Dems need to spend less time talking and making PR appearances, and more time getting things done.
And what exactly are they supposed to do, Gomez, between now and Jan when they're sworn in? The Dems don't have the power to do squat right now - they haven't had that power in the House for 12 years, and in the Senate for the last 4.
In the interest of fairness you should at least wait until March to level that critisism at the Dems.
As bad as the Dem's public image is, they've been given the chance to finally get something done, and they'd better make good on it. Even run-of-the-mill, boring old competence will be a huge improvement on the current situation. I'm chomping at the bit for the 110th Congress to begin in January. Until then, however, there's not really much the Dems can do but talk.
I'm not just referring to the last two weeks, John. I am referring to the long term both in the past and in the future.
On the whole though, I do agree with this article; one election doesn't make a revolution. In my lifetime I have witnessed the press proclaim the death of the republican party in 1964 and again in 1974; a scant 6 years later the republicans bounced back to the point the press was proclaiming the demise of the Democrats; a death notice they repeated in 1994. And speaking of '94, what republican that year wasn't confidently predicting a one term Clinton Presidency?
The one big advantage the Democrats have right now is the republicans: they are in DC as we speak, reelecting the corrupt leadership that led them into this debacle.
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