Hey kids, I’m not sure I’m up to this idea of embracing the red states. I’m usually all for that kind of thing, but it gets difficult when they don’t want to be friendly. (Josh Marshall “explains my reluctance more eloquently”:http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/week_2004_11_07.php#003956A than I could.) A case in point is this recent “explosion of fascist vitriol”:http://www.humaneventsonline.com/article.php?id=5652 masquerading as a “modest proposal” for mainstream America:
bq. As a class, liberals no longer are merely the vigorous opponents of the Right; they are spiteful enemies of civilization’s core decency and traditions…
bq. When they tire of showering conservative victims with ideological mud, liberals promote the only other subjects with which they feel conversationally comfortable: Obscenity and sexual perversion. It’s as if the genes of liberals have rendered them immune to all forms of filth.
bq. As a final insult, liberal lawyers and judges have become locusts of the Left, conspiring to destroy democracy itself by excreting statutes and courtroom tactics that fertilize electoral fraud and sprout fields of vandals who will cast undeserved and copious ballots on Election Day.
(Yes, you heard that right. Our crimes include talking about sex and encouraging everyone to vote.)
_Ugh._ That commentary would have sickened me if I hadn’t been bolstered by the simple beauty of “Sorry Everybody”:http://sorryeverybody.com/, a collection of heart-felt apologies to the rest of the world (i.e. victims of our foreign policy) and sweet replies from the world community.
Be more optimistic about the red the states. In many of them the number of 2008 lost voters (death, migration, loss of interest) and 2008 new voters (reached age 18, became citizens, moved in, became interested in voting) will far exceed the Bush margin over Kerry in 2004.
Whether a state is red or blue may well depend on the internal balance of power within the state. For instance, the vast majority of counties in my home state of Pennsylvania voted for Bush, but the record Democratic showings in Southeast Pennsylvania (including a 400,000 Kerry VICTORY MARGIN in Philadelphia alone)was too much for the other counties to overcome.
More voters voted for Kerry than any other Democratic nominee in American history, and Kerry would have won something like 373 electoral votes if the electorate was limited to those 35 and under, as Kerry won big in the age group most likely to be around in 2008.
The Democratic Party has a future, and, with the help of diverse internet communities, it can be a very strong future.