From the now-dormant ‘Disgusted Liberals‘ website on the election:
Scheiber describes some of the institutional factors, including Democrats’ persistent hard money disadvantage, that lead to reliance on a few, centrally-managed pollsters. But he ignores the key characteristic of the modern Democratic Party that leads most directly to misuse of pollsters: the fact that Democrats are, by and large, a post-ideological party, a party driven more by polls and interest groups than by conviction or principle.
In short, although many Republican ideas are bad, at least they have them. Until the same can be said about Democrats, they will continue to lose — especially in the current environment, where the existence of big, scary problems makes the electorate more receptive to ideological solutions.
…hat tip to MyDD, in a post about Amy Sullivan’s great Washington Monthly column ‘Fire the Consultants.’
Very concise summation of the problem with the democratic party machine. I might add that the DNC smothers local grassroots efforts, like a malignant and metastatic growth budding off the out of control DNC.
To keep losing, the DNC merely needs to keep the same personnel, ally with the same news media/journalists, stay friendly with the same propaganda meisters and media moghuls. I want to vote democratic again, but the idiots just won’t let me.
Hey AL,
For all my griping at you recently, this is something I can get behind.
It’s also consistent with what your stated goals (the content) while being in alliance with process as well (actually looking to help democrats).
As far as ideas go, the Dean insurgency, moveon, dailykos, some SEIU orgs, there are a lOT of ideas in these groups, that aren’t “poll-based”. I’m not sure how happy you are with these groups’ ideas, but they are the main body of a “new” democratic party.
At any rate, good post, good on you for pointing to this.
A.L.: The final-but-last post on that same blog is a good example of something else the D’s will have to overcome if they want to be taken seriously again: Politicizing national security.
JC – stick around, I’m still working on my 95 Theses in my spare time…pitch in!!
A.L.
“although many Republican ideas are bad, at least
they have them.”
Thats a start, but a weak one..
Without an idea of you own to measure against, on what basis can you judge an idea as bad ?
War, war is “bad” hmm ok this ill admit, in fact its always “bad”, but all too often, the alternatives are worse.
So simply saying something is “bad”, again, is meaningless if you offer no acceptable alternative.
In lots of ways, freedom is “bad”, its untidy, its unpredictable, it fustrates the designs of utopian social planners, it dont build a bridge across some scary abys to the one best future.
So the left came up with alternatives, alternatives that, among other things, mass murdered some 174 Million people over 70 years, with the mountain still growing in places like North Korea, Libya, Zimbabwe, Ethiopia, Cuba, and Vietnam.
And many of us, are willing to resist the theft of the freedom many have died for, ultamatly by shooting and killing those wanting to take it away.
The asendency of the Right in America should properly be seen with the 3 steps of Soapbox, Ballotbox, Cartrige box factoring into those new entrants speaking out and rebelling against 50 years of detereorating freedoms and the attacks on our kids in the schools attempting to sexualise them at age 6
Im new to politics, im 47 years old and never voted untill the last election.
Leftist attack on our way of life and overbearing government is animating the silent majority, im hardly at the front edge of something that began with Goldwater, but im not at the tail end either.
We are pissed, we are motivated, and the left is no longer the only activists taking to the streets, just perhaps, some of you have noticed, its new, and more to come.
I thought this was the funniest quote, and it goes right to the heart of A.L.’s “coccoon’ thesis:
bq. “Hansen is part of a clique of Washington consultants who, through their insider ties, continue to get rewarded with business even after losing continually. Pollster Mark Mellman is popular among Democrats because he tells them what they so desperately want to hear: Their policies are sound, Americans really agree with them more than with Republicans, and if they just repeat their mantras loud enough, voters will eventually embrace the party. As Noam Scheiber pointed out in a New Republic article following the great Democratic debacle of ’02, Mellman was, perhaps more than anyone else, the architect of that defeat. As the DSCC’s recommended pollster, he advised congressional Democrats to ignore national security and Iraq in favor of an endless campaign about prescription drugs and education. After the party got its clock cleaned based on his advice, Mellman should have been exiled but was instead…promoted. He became the lead pollster for John Kerry’s presidential campaign, where he proffered eerily similar advice—stress domestic policy, stay away from attacking Bush—to much the same effect.”
I’m sure “Wile E. Coyote Consultants” are a bipartisan phenomenon… and they’re almost as funny as their cartoon counterpart.
bq. “After the party got its clock cleaned based on his advice, Mellman should have been exiled but was instead…promoted.”
This appears to be an all to common trait of humans. “Paul Ehrlich”:http://www.sepp.org/controv/ehrlich.html/ is but one more example.
Unfortunately this doesn’t address the real problem with the Democratic Party.
It is fundamentally divided.
The Deaniacs/MoveOn/Kos/Moore crowd reject any “war” on Terrorism/Al Qaeda and want at MOST limited bombing of Afghanistan ala Clinton in 98; and in the case of Kos/MoveOn/Moore no action at all but “apology” to bin Laden and dumping of Israel.
The Lieberman/Gephardt wing wants some more competent version of the Bush policy of using force when needed against hostile regimes.
Kerry was the straddle between these two camps; though much, much more in the Deaniacs/MoveOn camp since that’s where the money is.
The Party will go nowhere until one faction wins and imposes it’s will. That’s likely to be the Deaniacs/MoveOn wing, and their Berkeley/San Francisco based views on National Security (“if we are really, really nice people around the world will love us”) is likely to prevail, driving the Party likely to oblivion.
A depressing time for non-Deaniac Democrats.
“The Democrats are looking for 100 good ideas”:http://powerandcontrol.blogspot.com/2005/01/want-to-fix-democrat-party.html
If you have an idea on how to help them go there.
I suggested they give up on socialism and try to find ways to make Iraq a vibrant democracy.
“I suggested they give up on socialism”
Fat chance, but first this, from American Digest
It’s Happydale for the Democrats
“Mortimer loves his batty aunts and I still love the batty Democrats. Alas, I have to confess that I’m ready to do the paperwork that will send them all off to Happydale for the duration. Let’s face it, the Democrats have just gone to their own private banana plantation, little red choo-choo round the bend, sandwiches short of a picnic, nice house — no furniture, etc. Like many others, I’m tired of taking sharp implements away from them and baby-proofing the Party. Not only that, but their craziness is starting to repeat to the extent that their manias are becoming boring. Their old folk tunes still have a certain lilt, but they really have to put down the banjo and quit bobbing back and forth in the rocker all day. Danger to selves? Check. Danger to others? Check and double-check.”
[…]
“There have been boatloads of psychoanalytical articles about what the Democrats need to do to regain sanity They will, alas, heed none of them. Instead, they will persist in their dementia. They can do no other.
They’ve been drinking too long and too deeply from their own brand of high-proof Purity. They can’t taper off and they can’t walk away because they have, quite simply, not bottomed out. They are blind drunk on bile.”
The whole thing @ “AD”:http://americandigest.org/mt-archives/004909.php
What is the democrats about if it isnt shoving the goverment gun held by a govt goon in your face to dicatate your behavior?
All of their haglian dialectic “solutions” involve more laws, more paperwork, more fine tuned control over you.
They are still convinced that the only problem with their ideas is the balky humans that refuse to go along, to wit the gulag the mass grave and the iron curtain and the berlin wall.
Wither freedom ?
I dont see that the Grass roots right has let go of the idea that we have too many laws, to many excuses for the govt goons to come see you, too little freedom and too much tax.
A weaker left will only intensify the demand for socialism to start being reversed, not lessen it, the more secure we are in power, the more demanding we will be that they be more representavive of us.
Not that it will happen fast, just to get this far took us decades, how many years since Goldwater ? and it will be decades of hard work more to come.
As for the dems, its more Govt more law less freedom, all the time, its tyranny wrapped in nice words and the propaganda dont work any more.
They would first need to admit they are wrong.
I dont see that happening.
They cant fix this with better marketing, its the content, not the packaging that is being rejected.
Grammatical excoriation aside, I have to ask if this poster has any clue what the Patriot Act is about. Or what John Ashcroft did for States’ Rights. (I live in Oregon, where the voters _three times_ approved physician-assisted suicide, and Ashcroft repeatedly threatened to arrest any doctor participating.)
Gulag? Mass grave? Let’s hope, for kindness’ sake, that this fellow doesn’t fall victim of anonymous accusation and find himself in Gitmo. Then he’d have to rave about the Democrats from behind bars.
If the poster’s name was “Donald Nelson” and he’d tried to fly on an airline in the last three years, he’d probably have a clue.
Hmm, im two big long posts already, and there are only 11.
It the risk of the percentage becoming abusive, I promise to stop after this one.
Stickler, ya look pretty sporty in that home made aluminum foil helmet ya got there!
Well thats was my first impression anyway, but you seem in the mood for reasonable objections, and there is room for some understanding on the small board you placed on the table.
First, Ashcroft is a good and decent man.
Notice what is happening in Netherlands ? better not get too old and infirm there, where the ethics of Peter Singer, and this man dictates your fate.
bq. “It is the supreme duty of the state to grant life only to the healthy and hereditarily sound portion of the population…. The life of the individual has meaning only in light of that ultimate aim.” -Nazi medical authority, Dr. Arthur Guett
Peter Singer is all the rage there, whose last contribution to a book comes after a chapter about sex with chickens.
Think im kidding? there is hardly NO difference between Arthur and Peter.
Its a cult of death and forced euthenasia (yes i said forced) the kids have you ruled insane, and the state footing the bill is all to happy to comply, and its the magic needle for you.
So excuse me Mr moonbat, but this kind of stuff is scaring the straights, when Ashcroft tossed the monkey wrench into the gearbox of progress of that stuff comming here, it won him accolades from the seniors, all too familiar with The Netherlands, Singer, and his fellow traveler Dr.Guett
We could have a debate about making it less of a hassle on the doctors to dispense more morphine, im all for a total war on pain, but thats a seperate issue.
“Gitmo?”:http://www.frontpagemag.com/Articles/ReadArticle.asp?ID=16227
Leftist Lies about Gitmo, Charlie Daniels
bq. “The truth of the matter is that this operation is under a microscope. The Red Cross has an on site presence there and watches everything that goes on very closely. The media is not telling you the whole truth about what’s going on over there. The truth is that these scum bags are not only being treated humanely, but they are probably better off healthwise and medically than they’ve ever been in their lives. They are fed well, able to take showers and receive state of the art medical care. And have their own Moslem chaplain. I saw several of them in a field hospital ward where they were being treated in a state of the art medical facility.”
Mass graves ? Yes, we found some in Iraq, we found mass graves with children in them, litterally found still clutching their toys.
The left invented the Gulag, and upwards of 100+ Million out of 174 Million died in them, to talk about Gitmo as a “Gulag” is a slander and a smear and sneer at the poor souls who died slow painfull deaths in real ones, good thing you arnt close, your cheek and the back of my bearclaw of a hand would be stinging a bit right now.
Patriot Act, finally we have some common ground here, it dont scare me much because I trust the people in charge, but im still against it, the same damn stack of paper Clinton and Reno attempted to make law after the OKC bombing, we was convinced they wanted to burn more Christian nuts with guns, more Wacos more Ruby Ridges.
Well ever wonder how such a pile of legalese was ready so fast ? it was Clintons pile of paper, passed with none of them even reading it.
What was bad under Clinton is OK for Bush ?
Im as pissed as you are, and will the patrot acts defenders feel just as enthusiasic when another Clinton appoints another Reno ?
Perhaps we can agree that giving such power to someone you trust is still bad when you know his successor might not be looked upon with the same affection ?
Can you say “Short Sighted” ?
its too bad those that share this disdain for the Patriot Act are flying off the hinges and scaring the straights.
It makes it all the more difficult for the likes of me to argue against it because they start to see the same tinfoil hat on me.
All the frothy mania from the black helecopter crowd is not helping.
Welp, as I said before, the core of the republican base, (they sure cant win a damn thing without us) is animated by freedom, and a portion of that damn Patrot Act was used against a stripper bar in vegas, is bare pussy swinging on a pole a “terrorist” now?
But, too bad you cant help us, your too hung up on tinfoil hat crap, railing against Haleburton, as if we should give it to the one other company capable of the same scope, Schumberger, the fu**in French?
I have friends that work for that AMERICAN, ahem, company, good people both of them, with two broke down cars, 2 kids, and a dog, I didnt see horns or tails on any of them.
Welp, on the other hand, just keep right on going with your Bushitler haleburton tinfoil hat F911, paranoid bullcrap, your insults to our military and their leaders and your insults in general to the Character of the people of the United States.
Just keep on keepin on, keep that tinfoil hat close by.
Ive been looking at the trend lines of election results, and the direction things are going is fine with me, so .. ok Nevermind.