Alright so the beast that is economics is going to have to wait, because it’s a beast. But I am going to tackle Democratic strategy. Mostly because I hear these pissy Democrats (myself included) lamenting, "But, how is this possible, I feel such hatred, why do we continue losing elections, what’s going on, it must be the Christians, or the...uh..., damnit I should have voted for Dean."

Ok, this is the wrong mentality. What the Democrats need is intelligence. The reason the Republicans have been so successful is that the Democrats were in power from 1932 to 2000, with only brief interludes. Over that time Democrats became the establishment, for example: Social Security, welfare, taxes (mostly progressive), liberal Supreme Court Justices, large central government, etc. Just about every aspect of the federal government (other than the military) reflects the Democrats seven decade reign.

So the Republicans realized, "Wow, there are a lot of people who don't like what the Democrats have set up, but there are also some who like some of what the Democrats setup, but not all, lets exploit this." Of course every election cycle the Republicans give their usual shtick, lower taxes, smaller federal government, no abortions, no gays, religion and government intertwined, strict-constructionist supreme court justices, etc. But the beauty is that they can mobilize an energetic core with just that rhetoric, they can be the opposition party. Say we are against all these things that are the establishment, but what would actually happen (and will happen) when Bush has the chance to appoint one or more Supreme Court justices. If Roe gets overturned it will not end up being popular in any stretch of the imagination, because people take Roe for granted, an overwhelming percentage support abortions rights (even if Republicans would like to pretend otherwise). People take Social Security for granted, there is the conception that those will be there regardless of Republican action. Bush can campaign to ban abortions and cut the size of government, but he says this because he has never had to do either.

Let’s see if I have actually made my point, because it is late and I just condemned Socrates to his death. Many people lament that Democrats don't have any ideas these days. That is because, right now is the Democratic. The Republicans can just stigmatize right now, even though they are the majority party, and say a vote for Democrats is a vote against tomorrow (whatever that means) and they win. Will they change tomorrow? I do not know, but it would be ridiculously risky. Social Security is already getting pulled under their feet, mostly because people like their benefits, poor Bush thinking he could handle the third-rail. Put shortly, if the Republicans actually had their proposals go through they would lose their popularity, very few support getting rid of Miranda rights, the loss of Abortion rights, the loss of Social Security benefits (no matter how much its required) etc.

Now what are the Democrats to do? Well for one, disavow yourselves from the establishment. Stop defending everything tooth and nail and start proposing things. If you lose on some things it will only encourage your popularity and standing for things instead of against things tends to play well with...humans. Howard Dean is not the answer, Kerry was more of an attempt at an answer, but the reason people are falling head over heals in love with Barak Obama is because he represents some type of future of the Democratic Party. He represents a party with ideas and not an establishment that is far too easy to stigmatize.

-Mr. Alec

PS I will be in California all weekend for debate and I will be preparing tommrow. But Sunday I will discuss the cases I ran and hit. Should be a good time.