Future of the Democratic Party

[John Simkin]

When LBJ signed the 1964 Civil Rights Act he made a prophecy that he was “signing away the south for 50 years”. This proved fairly accurate. In fact, the Democrats have never recovered the vote of the white racists in the Deep South. This is the electorate that now gives its support to the Republican Party.

In the 2004 election Bush won every state in the Deep South. There is now talk of Hillary Clinton being the Democratic Party candidate in 2008. That will be political suicide. The only two Democratic Party presidential candidates who have done well since the resignation of LBJ are Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton. Both are southern Baptists. The only way the Democratic Party can win the next election is by having someone that Christian Fundamentalists in the Deep South feel comfortable with. This will involve the candidate shifting the issue of morality to cover areas like poverty and inequality.

[Derek McMillan]

The Democrats are talking about "learning the lessons" of their defeat. Yet all their deliberations boil down to making themselves more like the Republicans because "ooh look the Republicans won."

Another view is that the Republicans won because there was not alternative. People correctly saw that there was no serious difference between the two candidates.

Right now our government and the Americans are preparing to commit cold-blooded murder in Fallujah. It is necessary to destroy the place in order to save it. The Blair government is a direct result of the "lesser evil" strategy. Do you think the women and children of Fallujah will feel any difference?

I have been receiving emails all day from Americans virtually apologising for being American. If they retreat into self-guilt and helplessness and pursue another "anything is better than Bush" strategy...well we already know what the outcome will be....either the Democrats suffer another humiliating defeat or it makes no damned difference if they win.

If on the other hand Americans break from the two party (in reality ONE party) system then there is hope for the future. This does not have to be the nadir of democracy.

[James Richards]

When LBJ signed the 1964 Civil Rights Act he made a prophecy that he was “signing away the south for 50 years”. This proved fairly accurate. In fact, the Democrats have never recovered the vote of the white racists in the Deep South. (John Simkin)

What a terrifying thought that is.

The Dems are in serious trouble; and except for the blip on the radar that was Bill Clinton, they have been since the death of John Kennedy. IMO, if JFK was alive today, he would be a Conservative. Then again, I am an Australian, so what would I know?

James

Edited November 7, 2004 by James Richards

[John Simkin]

Interesting report by BBC news today.

Canadian immigration officials said the number of US citizens visiting their website went up six-fold the day after the US election.

Their website, which on an average day has some 20,000 hits, was visited by 115,016 on Wednesday, Reuters news agency reported.

The figure dropped on Thursday but was still higher than normal, at 65,803.

There was speculation that Democrats fed up with George W Bush's win were thinking of moving over the border.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/3987697.stm

[Derek McMillan]

Americans should not run away to Canada. They should stand and fight.

The Democrats have now Harry Reid as their leader in the Senate. This is just a straw in the wind but Reid is notoriously anti-abortion, pro-war and voted for all of Bush's policies of tax cuts. The increased convergence of the two parties is a response to their defeat but it makes it clear enough to voters there is no point voting for the "lesser evil" when it is scarcely "lesser".

[Raymond Blair]

The Democratic is in need of a vision of where to go. It is struggling from a lack of effective policies. I cannot think of one democrat that I have had the opportunity to vote for that I was proud to do so (and of course, that dem had a chance of gaining a nomination)

The last great Democrat IMO was Bobby Kennedy.

In the aftermath of Nixon, nothing emerged to take advantage of the possible collapse of the republicans.

Clinton was a charismatic but couldn't get much done.

The Democratic party has been a victim of its own success. Its legacy is the New Deal and Lyndon Johnson's more controversial additions to it.

The last great unfinished business of the liberal program would be a national health service but no democratic leader has the guts to argue that it would be in the best interests of the American people.

LIberal democrats are left to caretake the remains of the New Deal and defend it from conservative revision.

It is time for new ideas to address the problems of today and tomorrow that reveal the bankruptcy of the Republican program. Democrats are just to darned timid and they lack new ideas to move the country forward. They get stcuk with the lable tax and spend even though the pile of debt we hold has largely been run up by the republican presidencies of the last 20 years. No one seems to mind that the republican alternative has been to tax cut and spend.

Fiscal conservatives should be howling at the moon at the reckless spending and pork barrel corruption srewing forth from our tills. But alas, the dems have failed our country and we have put forth two mediocre candidates to usher in the Bush generation.