Should Republicans go ahead and add Supreme Court Justices to head off Democrats

Why Dems lost

kenshi:

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I'm going to get this out of the way with some tough love: A major reason why the Democrats lost so big in this election is that the Democratic party has become reactionary, elitist, out-of-touch, smugly statist, and extremely condescending. The vast majority of reaction on the Left simply echo those problems. How do they deign to talk to their opponents? With nothing but disgust, patronization, and condescension, a tone which has been endemic to Democratic positions for forty years.

The Democratic Party--my party--has finally become nothing more than the party of cognitive dissonance. That is why, like Zell Miller and a large fraction of usually Democratic middle America, I backed the other side on this one.

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Mainstream media bragged of being able to boost the Dems by 15 percent (do you remember Newsweek saying that?). The "blogosphere" has been crowing that MSM failed to do so (for which the blogs also claim responsibility), but I don't agree. I think the MSM actually succeeded in bringing the Dems a 10 to 15 point boost in the election (and maybe more). Before the media spin machine started systematically slamming Bush 18 months ago, he was favored at around 66% in the polls. 66% minus 15% is...well...the 51% margin Bush was re-elected by. Thing is, even the thinly veiled support of most major media outlets wasn't enough to put Kerry in the White House. The Democratic party has completely, utterly, undeniably marginalized itself. The Dems no longer have a national party. All it takes is one look at the electoral map to illustrate that. The so-called "Purple Map" may make them feel better, but close only counts in horseshoes and hand grenades. A party that can only win in the Northeast and Left Coast is not a national party anymore. A party that manages to lose by 3 percent even with a huge boost from blatantly partisan favorable media coverage is on its deathbed politically.

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The question, then, is: what next for the Dems? It is clear beyond any doubt now that the party must change or die. Losing by 3.6 million votes after pulling out all the stops to win (motivating the base, MSM partisanship, getting huge turnout, out-spending the opposition, etc.) makes that clear. The hardcore democratic base is now too small to win, but too big to let the party move to the center. The coalition politics that was once the greatest strength of the party has become its biggest liability. The Republicans are the "Big Tent" party now. The warring factions uneasily united under the Democratic banner have only succeeded in crippling one another: cancelling out like protons and anti-protons.

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Another thing the party MUST do is get free from the choke-hold of intellectual elitism. Say it with me now:

People who voted for George W. Bush are neither ignorant nor stupid. Many of them had excellent reasons for doing so, even if we see other reasons they shouldn't have. It was their decision to make, and they made it with as much consideration and deliberation as they thought appropriate. Because we might disagree does NOT make them any less intelligent, educated, moral, compassionate, or anything else. I don't necessarily know what's better for the country than they do, but we all have to make our decision based on our values and available knowledge. Supporting political opinions or candidates I disagree with DOES NOT BY ITSELF MAKE ANYBODY A BAD PERSON.

I know that's a bitter pill for a lot of people to swallow right now, but without that medicine, the Democratic party will not be able to rise off its deathbed. I've already taken my dose today. Now it's your turn.