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maineman
11-08-2006, 07:21 PM
If one were to compare the last two major shifts in the congressional balance of power: 1994 and 2006, there are some striking differences.

In 1994, Newt Gingrich and the cast of republican congressional candidates and their ingeneous Contract with America, were able to energize the right.

In 2006, the democrats, by using the inept and divisive track record of those republicans, were able to capture the middle which the republican party had become increasingly dismissive of over their dozen years in the limelight.

The republicans will not be able to recapture that middle by being MORE "right" but only by moderating their extreme positions on foreign policy, on tax policy, and on social justice and social equity issues and moving back towards the center.

We, as democrats, will not attempt to cram any uber-socialist agenda down America's throat. We will propose moderate changes and improvements that will be acceptable and welcomed by that middle, and Bush will veto them at the further peril of his party.

One hopes that the bluster of Hannity and Limbaugh and Dixie et.al. will rapidly wither away and calmer, more moderate republican voices will make themselves heard.

Cancel7
11-08-2006, 07:40 PM
Sadly for the Republicans, Dixie was right about one thing. The Republican party moved to the right because they got hit so hard in the Northeast. Their Congressional makep is even more to the right than it was. And that does not bode well for their futures as America has now seen what an extremist right will do to this country, and they said thanks, but no thanks.

BRUTALITOPS
11-09-2006, 08:49 AM
If one were to compare the last two major shifts in the congressional balance of power: 1994 and 2006, there are some striking differences.

In 1994, Newt Gingrich and the cast of republican congressional candidates and their ingeneous Contract with America, were able to energize the right.

In 2006, the democrats, by using the inept and divisive track record of those republicans, were able to capture the middle which the republican party had become increasingly dismissive of over their dozen years in the limelight.

The republicans will not be able to recapture that middle by being MORE "right" but only by moderating their extreme positions on foreign policy, on tax policy, and on social justice and social equity issues and moving back towards the center.

We, as democrats, will not attempt to cram any uber-socialist agenda down America's throat. We will propose moderate changes and improvements that will be acceptable and welcomed by that middle, and Bush will veto them at the further peril of his party.

One hopes that the bluster of Hannity and Limbaugh and Dixie et.al. will rapidly wither away and calmer, more moderate republican voices will make themselves heard.

80% cited iraq. Voters going to the polls weren't thinking of social and equity issues, they were thinking of 3000 soldiers dying.

Republicans made this mistake in 2004 and now democrats are starting to do it... predicting the "End" of a certain side.

Republicans aren't finished, if we pull out of iraq soonish, by 2008 it will be yesterday's news for the average voter.

maineman
11-09-2006, 08:51 AM
I am not predicting the end of republicans at all...I am predicting a diminishment in the influence of neocons and fundies..... and the republican party would do well for itself to attempt to make my prediction come true

Damocles
11-09-2006, 08:59 AM
I am not predicting the end of republicans at all...I am predicting a diminishment in the influence of neocons and fundies..... and the republican party would do well for itself to attempt to make my prediction come true
Well, it will do well to end the NeoCon influence. The whole nationbuilding thing is beyond the pale.

evince
11-09-2006, 09:44 AM
The Rs better hope there is not a third party made to give the extreme right someone to vote for if they want to continue the policies of anti abortion, gay hating,the end is coming anyway so kill people of other religions in other countries because they will not have a base anymore.

The Rs have a really hard time staying in the middle because of their Need to court this group.

Cypress
11-09-2006, 09:49 AM
I'm afraid the national republican party is going to get more extreme.

On tuesday, the moderate northeastern wing of the moderate republicans went extinct. With the exception of Arlen Specter. Many of the GOP house losses were GOP moderates. All they've pretty much got now are the wingnutters.

In constrast, many blue dog dems got elected. Obviously, the myth of the democratic party careening wildly to the left, was a lie.

If Democrats were smart (which I doubt sometime), they'll will consolidate the middle, and maintain a majority in congress for years to come.

Immanuel
11-09-2006, 11:51 AM
We, as democrats, will not attempt to cram any uber-socialist agenda down America's throat. We will propose moderate changes and improvements that will be acceptable and welcomed by that middle, and Bush will veto them at the further peril of his party.



Is that just a campaign promise? ;)

I hope you're right and who knows maybe you are for the first few years, but I suspect that much like the Reps, the Dems who attained new found power on Tuesday and those that will in 2008 will become over confident just as their predecessors did from 1994 and we will be struggling to defeat the extreme once again only from the other side.

Immie

Damocles
11-09-2006, 11:53 AM
I think the next two years will be about the Presidency and they'll spend the first little bit being moderate then all of them will morph into Campaign mode. (Yes, the Rs and Is too.)

Damocles
11-09-2006, 11:55 AM
If I were the Ds I'd take away as many of the Campaign slogans that the Rs will use as possible. Pass a good Late Term abortion law that includes the "life of mother" clause.

Cancel7
11-09-2006, 04:05 PM
80% cited iraq. Voters going to the polls weren't thinking of social and equity issues, they were thinking of 3000 soldiers dying.

Republicans made this mistake in 2004 and now democrats are starting to do it... predicting the "End" of a certain side.

Republicans aren't finished, if we pull out of iraq soonish, by 2008 it will be yesterday's news for the average voter.

The exit polls I saw showed 40% cited the economy. You are all also completely dismissing the number of dems who ran, and won, on a economic populist platform. Even some who were considered socially conservative for their views on gay marriage or abortion.

Poll after polls shows that the middle class really is feeling the squeeze, that there is over 70% support for a raise in the minimum wage and that there is a large majority who support universal health care. Too many in the middle class have lost jobs, and thus lost their health care. I suppose you believe that when the dems introduce legislation to force the oil companies to actually pay what they are supposed to be paying, that there is going to be a mass popular uprising? lol Wake up.

Fool yourselves if you want, but economic populism is back. Sorry.

Cypress
11-09-2006, 04:12 PM
The exit polls I saw showed 40% cited the economy. You are all also completely dismissing the number of dems who ran, and won, on a economic populist platform. Even some who were considered socially conservative for their views on gay marriage or abortion.

Poll after polls shows that the middle class really is feeling the squeeze, that there is over 70% support for a raise in the minimum wage and that there is a large majority who support universal health care. Too many in the middle class have lost jobs, and thus lost their health care. I suppose you believe that when the dems introduce legislation to force the oil companies to actually pay what they are supposed to be paying, that there is going to be a mass popular uprising? lol Wake up.

Fool yourselves if you want, but economic populism is back. Sorry.


Fool yourselves if you want, but economic populism is back. Sorry

Damn straight.

And what does gun-loving, crew-cut farmer boy Senator-elect Jon Tester (Montana), and liberal progressive cleveland ohio-boy Senator-elect Sherrod Brown have in common?


-Opposition to corporate-written so-called "free" trade deals like CAFTA that screw american workers.

-Raising the minimum wage.

-Protecting social security from corporate privitizers.

-Valuing small business eutrepenuers, and family farmers against maruading corporate agri-business consortiums.

Immanuel
11-09-2006, 05:39 PM
The election in context?

"I want a damned recount". ;)

Or how about this one from Dixie (paraphrased) "Now that the Democrats have control of the Congress every death of an American soldier is on their heads".

Hmm, that makes me wonder if maybe this loss wasn't strategized by the Republicans. Now, that the Dems have control every death after #2800 give or take 1 or 2 can be blamed on the Democrats. When we reach # 10,000, 7200 lives will be blamed on the Democratic Congress, 50,000 the Dems will be blamed for 47,200 lives. The Republicans will sit back and say, "see we told you we could do it better".

Maybe that was the plan all along?

Immie

OrnotBitwise
11-09-2006, 06:12 PM
-Valuing small business eutrepenuers, and family farmers against maruading corporate agri-business consortiums.
This is the toughest one of the lot . . . and the item least valued by the neo-con wing of the Republican Party.

Damocles
11-09-2006, 06:26 PM
Illegal Immigration and the Economy were tied for number 3, Iraq was first.