Rob, I'm just wondering. Even though you are a partisan democrat, don't you see the incredible anti Republican bias in that piece? An amazing premise. "How do those friends-of-the-rich-Republicans get the very people they are hurting to vote for them? Why can't the Democrats get the very people they are trying to help to vote for them?" The article is written with the very arrogance it bemoans. The underlying assumption is that the voters have been duped! In reality, I think it is more likely that neither the Republicans, nor those working class folks who voted for them believe the Republican approach is bad for the working class. It seems the more logical assumption is that the working class folks understand the Democrats, and don't agree that the Democrats have programs or ideas that are in their best interests. Yet the article drips with the premise "We know better, how can we explain it to the poor simpletons." From that starting point, the Dems will never get anywhere.

I don't know... I think I'm done trying to explain this now.

 

<Tom Hanks voice> Whining? There's no whining in politics.
I'm going to be kicking and screaming for the next four years.

Dean

 

Bill, what's wrong with an anti-Republican bias in an OPINION piece?

 

True, that is the assumption. But it's explicitly stated, so what's your point?

On the other hand, you assumed that you had the right and ability to decide that my personal feelings and analysis (in the "Divided" thread) were rhetoric and hyperbole. You can say they are wrong, but you have no right to say I don't actually believe them.

 

Think I'll retire from this thread and leave it to others a bit more artful than me.

 

Poor logic skills.

1) Some GOP voters are motivated by bigotry
2) JMC is a GOP voter

does not imply

3) JMC is motivated by bigotry

Jeff did not backpeddle, nor did he imply that all GOP voters were motivated by bigotry. He just said the Republicans were very successful in convincing a certain class of bigots to vote on their side. The Democrats tried similar things, but obviously to less overall success.

 

 

Thanks for the personal attack. Class act.

BTW, there was no qualifer of "some" GOP voters. He spoke of core voters of which I am one. I am well and truly done with this.

 

Bill

Of course there is bias in the piece. No question about it. I would expect no less from a liberal writer in a reasonably liberal newspaper. Just as I would expect a conservative writer, writing in a conservative paper, to speak to his or her audience.

The point of the piece, however, is not that the voters were duped, but rather how the Democrats have lost touch with those who were the very heart of their constituency in the past. I don't think he is criticizing the voters so much as he is criticizing the party. And, I think he is right. I think we Democrats have ourselves to blame for losing the election as much as anything else.

I think the Democratic party would do well to learn from the Republicans. The Republican party, and the Bush campaign, like it or not, had brilliant strategy. They outlined their issues, focused on their issues and took a consistent stand. Their propaganda read better than the Democrat's in the heartland, and they were much more skillful at "spin". In general their campaign was much better orchestrated and organized. But, to quote Will Rogers, "I don't belong to an organized political party, I'm a Democrat."

I don't believe in what the Republican party believes in, and I don't think Bush was the better man (unfortunately, the best man left office on December 31, 2000), but the Republicans did a better job of getting their message out.

 

This thread is ugly, what a shame it was opened back up...