--- Jon Gabriel <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > While I believe you may be right about voting > patterns, I have to ask: what > about political maneuvering? > > I that think as a result of intense Republican > political machinations over > the last decade, what you are describing is in fact > a common perception > amongst Democrats (and some middle-of-the-road > Republicans). After watching > the Clinton impeachment trial, the voting district > fiasco in Texas, the > Gingrich gov't shutdown, the recall in California > and the most recent Senate > filibuster, I don't think it's an unreasonable > conclusion for people to > draw, either. No matter what excuses are given to > the contrary, Republican > political maneuvering on a state and national level > is almost always > centered at increasing and solidifying their own > power base. > > Jon
The problem is that this is an extremely partisan way of looking at such manueverings. I'm a middle-of-the-road, relatively non-partisan Republican. I've worked for Democratic campaigns (that's how I got started in politics) and didn't decide between Bush and Gore until the day I cast my ballot. But after watching the Democrats hold a pep rally on the lawn of the White House the day Clinton was impeached for perjury he definitely committed, the _Clinton_ government shutdown, the New Jersey Supreme Court rigging the 2002 New Jersey Senate election, the Florida Supreme Court attempting to rig the 2000 election (forcing the USSC to step in), and the recent _Democratic_ Senate filibuster (the first time in history that judicial appointments at such a level have been filibustered) and so on, I would say the exact opposite. Actually, I'd say that Democratic political manuevering is characteristic of the last, desperate thrashes of a party that sold its soul for political victory in 1992 and has now lost both its ideological moorings and its connection to the public. A view that is supported by the unprecedented surge in GOP voter registration natiowide, and the striking fact that younger voters are more, not less, conservative than their parents. (In other words, boomers, get used to people like me - I am _far_ more representative of my generation's politics than you are prepared for.) It all depends on the lens you use. It's a peculiar affectation of the left to adopt the most ruthless tactics and then pretend that the other side is the only one that plays to win. Anyone who's gone through the semi-fascist suppression of conservative speech that happens at many American universities knows the truth of that particular belief. I don't. I play to win. I do think Democratic tactics have been far more ruthless than their Republican counterparts, but I think that's the ruthlessness of defeat and despair. The Democratic party, absent Pres. Clinton's political genius, is losing, knows it's losing, and doesn't have any idea how to stop itself from losing, because it doesn't understand why it _is_ losing in the first place. It's not because the Democrats are evil and Republicans are saintly. If the situation was reversed (as it was in the 1970s) I rather think the tactics would as well. ===== Gautam Mukunda [EMAIL PROTECTED] "Freedom is not free" http://www.mukunda.blogspot.com __________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Protect your identity with Yahoo! Mail AddressGuard http://antispam.yahoo.com/whatsnewfree _______________________________________________ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
