November 6, 2002
ECONOMIC WARFARE--LOAD GUN, SHOOT SELF IN HEAD:
To understand the danger that now confronts the Democrats you need look no farther than this New Republic piece that Brother Murtaugh cites favorably, Neutral Observers (Noam Scheiber, 11.06.02, New Republic):
Had the Democrats tried to connect Bush to the corporate scandals--for example, by separating the estate tax repeal from the rest of the tax cut and pointing out that the wealthiest 3,300 people in the country pay more than half of it, thereby taking advantage of polls suggesting many voters still suspect he cares more about big business than ordinary Americans--they may have damaged his popularity sufficiently to give these Democrats a fighting chance.
The Left's love of taxation, which is a function of their love of government, continues to be a source of real derangement. Take a look at the poll numbers from this National Review piece, Another Man Bites Dog: Those who’d keep the estate tax are too rich to care. (Bruce Bartlett, June 19, 2002, National Review)
*A 1999 poll by Worthlin Worldwide found 70% of voters favoring a phase-out of the estate tax.*A 2000 poll by the Pew Research Center found 71% of voters supporting elimination of the inheritance tax.
*A 2001 CBS News/New York Times poll also found 71% of people opposing imposition of an estate tax at death.
Democrats, pushed Left by yesterday's disaster, seem likely to make a play for the 30% of the public that wants such taxes, it is after all their base. But they run the risk of becoming a 30% party. Posted by Orrin Judd at November 6, 2002 9:36 AM
46% of voters in Massachuesetts
just voted to repeal the state income tax. What does that say about how representative our state legislature actually is?
Granted, I think most of those votes were not so much expecting to actually pass the proposition as to warn the state to cut spending rather than raise taxes in the current budget crunch.
In NH that measure would have gotten over 60%.
Posted by: oj at November 6, 2002 9:33 AMThe Wellstone memorial last week was probably the Democrats' most disastarous public gathering in terms of election results since the 1968 DNC Convention in Chicago, and the party didn't learn anything from that, moving too far to the left in 1972 and getting themselves crushed by Nixon. The cycle may be shortened this time around if the "true believers" again sieze control of the party, and 2004 could be a replay of '72's results for the Democrats.
Posted by: John at November 6, 2002 10:13 AMJohn:
One of the lingering effects from the Wellstone tragedy may well be to convince Democrats that they need more of his kind of conviction politics. After all, look at how he was eulogized in the Party and the Media (but I repeat myself).
Sorry for the double post Orrin.
I think the results will move the Democrats to the left, but the public sentiment towards dealing with terrorists will have the party's pragmatic side looking for someone with some military bonifides, too. Based on that, I'd say Tuesday's results are probably good news for John Kerry (He's War! He's Anti-War! He's Serious! He's Compassionate! He's from a state right next to New Hampshire! He has a wife with tons of money! He's can provide free condaments for all the DNC functions! What more could you want in a Democratic candidate?)
John
Pragmatists?
Posted by: oj at November 6, 2002 3:16 PM