The Reindeer Armies Go Home

The Reindeer Armies Go Home - Daniel Henninger on last Tuesday, and how the Blue States of 2000 may have been a fluke, for now

The McAuliffe-Clinton Democrats (if you raise the money, you get the title) now resemble the country-club Republican party of the 1960s and '70s, an outsider party of reflexive obstruction. Exhibit A, displayed in the shadow of the election and the September 11 anniversary, was the Democratic carping over an Iraq resolution. Like Bob Michel's hapless GOP of yesteryear, they ultimately went along, and got no credit from the public for their votes.

Out of touch? I think we're getting that picture.

I don't know that I agree with this next part - the election isn't 72 hours old yet. But if you want to extrapolate a lot of meaning from those 72 hours, this next section seems very appropriate:

Normally in American politics, the professionals get over it, as Nixon did in 1960. But you watch enough of a James Carville spewing invective on TV or read the sort of bilious letters from the left recently described by New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof ("Dick Cheney is a maggot . . .") and you begin to recall the crackers in the 1950s who used to drive down the highways squeezing off gunshots at "Impeach Earl Warren" billboards.

The Dems' anger - and especially that of Minnesota DFLers - seems to be aimed at Republicans.

All the better - the longer it takes for them to deal with their internal rot, the better.

Posted by Mitch at November 8, 2002 06:40 AM