Under MY skin?
Oh there is no doubt that Environmental Republican got under my skin. All it takes to do that is when someone tries to 'shame' me. That sets me off more than anything else.
Update: Katinula responds and says she got under my skin. It appears the opposite is true as her response to me in the comments was nearly longer than my original post.
Then he follows with this gem:
The problem with what you say, Dave is that the Democrats and liberals are
farther to the left than Republicans are to the right.In fact, todays
Republicans are your fathers Democrats
This is classic conservative blinder-syndrome. The far right happens to pulling many power strings in the current administration and Congress. All you need to do is check over many conservative bloggers and see their outrage over the religious right and things like Terri Schiavo. True Republicans are sickened by that. Bill Frist saying that he can't say that AIDS isn't transmitted by sweat and tears??? C'mon now! And the democrats are not nearly liberal enough for me. Anyone who doesn't support gay MARRIAGE isn't liberal enough for me.
UPDATE: Its great to see a post generating so many comments and discussions! Thats more important than anything--generating discussion is THE most important thing.
posted by Katinula | 11:18 AM
1 Comments:
As to who is farther left or right of center depends a lot on where you personally stand.
Religious Conservatives are probably as close to the center as any other group, but in a different direction than either Liberals or Libertarian minded/Fiscal Republicans.
Certainly though there is truth to the idea that social conservatives used to be found in both parties, and they have now almost completely left the Democratic party, much to the Democrats electoral woes.
As long as Liberals remain a viable threat to both Social Conservatives and Fiscal Conservative their alliance will likely remain strong, with each electoral victory of Republicans, the threat of Liberal power decreases and the tensions between the two large groups increase.
The Democratic party, by contrast, is made up of many diverse groups, usually with a narrow primary focus (Woman's rights, Environmentalism, Unions, Anti-War activists, and pro-Democracy Wilsonian Democrats to name a few.) These groups have probably even less natural cohesion than the Republicans from an ideological standpoint and their main reason to stay together historically has been the power of the Democratic Party and a tit-for-tat arrangement within these special interests. The lessening of the Democratic parties power will likely also send wedges between these groups. Add in 9/11 which changed many peoples view of how the world works and what our priorities should be and I do think that the Democrats are in trouble, and will be for a while.
My guess is that the Republican coalition will hold together for at least the rest of the decade. Doesn't mean Democrats won't win anything (I think Hilary has a good shot at the Presidency) but the Democrats won't make broad gains in the house or the senate or amoung the general public in that time, and will continue to decline as a party.
At that point, a serious Split between the Republicans will become likely, and after perhaps another decade or reletive confusion, the parties will once again sort themselves out, although the ideological makeup of each will be radically different from what we have now.
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