Open Thread
Need a Hand?
Your Next Project Starts with BrownstonerMost Recent Articles
Need a Hand?
Your Next Project Starts with Brownstoner
Etson;
Disagree. As Irving Kristol has pointed out, the road to ascendancy is marked with setbacks. Barry Goldwater lost by a huge margin in 1964 – but it was the precursor to the conservative ascendancy that culminated in Ronald Reagan. Likewise, though George McGovern lost by a big margin, his followers went on to define much of the Democratic party for a generation.
My main point to Wasder, is that only the movement itself can define its way forward. By the logic of Wasder’s statement above, the conservatives would have folded their tent in 1964, and I imagine that alot of Democrats were “advising” them to do just that at the time.
DeLepp- I don’t see much change for the country. The parties don’t work together now, they won’t work together any better after January. It’s not about doing what’s good for the country- our government has now come down to doing what’s good for your party.
Gem – politics all day, every day? Good luck with that! But seriously, I hope you get it!
no marijuana legalization in California.
ugh, I don’t see much change for NYS. DiNapoli is a career pol who will be concerned with his pension more than anything else.
“In my way of thinking, this is a disingenuous statement. Are you really interested in advising the Republicans on the best way forward, given that you are a fairly committed liberal?”
benson, I’m not quite the Communist that wasder is, but I happen to agree with him, and personally I think it’s a statement of fact, not an attempt at advice. Even though I come from the “Can’t we all just get along please” school, I would never presume to advise the Republicans of anything. Then again, I would never presume to advise the far left wing of the Democratic party of anything either (witness how they brilliantly cost Blanche Lincoln her seat due to their primary challenge). But from what I’ve been reading and hearing on the news — including from Republicans — mainstream Republicans are desperate to get Sarah Palin off the stage for fear that she and the candidates she endorses will win the primaries in 2012 and cost the Republicans any chance they have at retaking the White House.
To be honest- I don’t care if Palin is a woman or not. I put her in the same category as I do other extremists and her gender has nothing to do with it. On the other hand I think she was chosen specifically because of her gender and more to the point, her looks. Not only is that insulting to women, it was especially insulting to Republican women, many of whom had worked long, hard and very successfully for the GOP. What reason were they passed over?
“Liberal women hate on Palin extra hard because she is a woman. I still stand behind that statement.â€
You said we were threatened. That’s a different statement.
I don’t like it but I think wasder is right. I think the Republicans discovered the outer bound of electability in close races last night. Somehwere between Toomey and Angle. For their part, the Dems are no longer electable already in large parts of the country.
I have my own views but we have to deal with the world as it is rather than as we would like it to be (incidentally the same reason that I support the coalition government in the UK in spite of my natural disdain for the Conservatives’ coalition partners).