November 7, 2002
STRIDING TO DISASTER:
Tiptoeing to Defeat: The party of Roosevelt, Truman and the Kennedys has morphed into the party of timidity. (BOB HERBERT, November 7, 2002, NY Times)The Democratic Party is like an army that dutifully goes off to battle but leaves its ammunition and its principles behind. It's bad enough to lack the firepower that you need to win. It's worse to not even know what you're fighting for.Despite the economic burdens that the middle and working classes are shouldering, despite the two million jobs lost and the scandalous concentration of wealth and income in the precincts of the very rich, the Democrats have yet to offer a compelling alternative to the reverse Robin Hood policies of the G.O.P.
Throughout this year's campaign, the Democrats let the president bang the cynical war drums on Iraq whenever and however he wished. Other important issues — the economy, employment, the administration's appalling environmental record, the threat to abortion rights and civil rights posed by the president's federal court nominees — were largely pushed aside, to the delight of Republicans nationwide.
Republicans didn't win control of the Senate on Tuesday. The clueless Democrats lost it.
Suppose we concede for a moment the idea that the American people can't figure out that the Democrats are the party of taxes, peace, and abortion. We'll grant Mr. Herbert's notion that as a general rule no one knows what the Democrats want any more. But, surely, there was one race on Tuesday where the party of FDR faced off against the Republicans of 2002 and it was just as ugly as the rest of the country. We speak, of course, of MN, where Walter Mondale, who may even have been a New Dealer, led the Democrat Farmer Labor Party against a pro-life, pro-tax cut, pro-war Republican. If there was one testing ground in America for Mr. Herbert's theory it was there. How'd the test go? Posted by Orrin Judd at November 7, 2002 3:56 PM
I may have been the only non-Republican in the country who was predicting a GOP pickup before the election.
We all know Orrin and his pals were hoping and praying. You may recall I observed people waiting in line for 20 minutes for the privilege of paying $35 for a sandwich and concluded the economy is not all that sick after all.
I don't know where Herbert lives, but he ought to wake up and smell the $3.95 cups of coffee.
I think it was Best of the Web yesterday who noted that Mondale is now the only person in history who has lost a state-wide election in every state in the Union. Herbert's theory was long past its due date in '84. It isn't looking any better now.
Posted by: David Cohen at November 7, 2002 3:22 PMMarc Racicot mentioned the other day that this election cycle the two parties spent $3 billion. During the same period Starbucks sold $4 billion of coffee.
Posted by: oj at November 7, 2002 3:38 PMDavid:
Thanks! I was trying to recall where I saw that delicious fact.
minor quibble: The Dems are the party of taxes, Appeasement, and abortion.
Posted by: MarkD at November 7, 2002 6:29 PMPeace is appeasement.
Posted by: oj at November 7, 2002 9:51 PMIf they have C-SPAN in FDR's afterlife, I doubt he approved of Mondale's stance against
upending a fascist, anti-semitic dictator.
Why? He loved Joe Stalin who is Saddam's avowed role model.
Posted by: oj at November 8, 2002 7:02 AMyou suck
Posted by: pasquinel at November 8, 2002 8:24 AMUndoubtedly
Posted by: oj at November 8, 2002 11:05 AM