The Pinkertons are gone. So is the Dust Bowl. Farmers drive half million dollar combines, dockworkers are paid $150,000 a year, 10-year-old American kids aren't working in textile plants, and schools are free. Get over it. I can find 70 year old leftists standing over by Stanford with their signs who are still defending the Rosenbergs. No skin off my nose, they don't run the country. But you're better and smarter than that, and the Democratic Party better pull itself into this century too. Good Lord, Walter Mondale??

And you say I'm stuck in nostalgia? This whole line of thinking makes as much sense as basing modern Republican policy on the idea of freeing the slaves in the Confederate States. Hey, Lincoln was a Republican right? Or maybe we should just keep fighting the Soviets forever. Hey, that was what Republicans were famous for a few years back, right?

The idea of putting government muscle into assisting the citizens who couldn't afford to hire private Pinkerton police forces to break strikes and heads, and putting people to work on government projects when the private sector was on its back, and providing for the very young and the very old in the face of utter destitution, instituted as part of the New Deal, is the basis of current Democratic policy, or what passes for Democratic policy anymore.



I think the party has strayed considerably from where it says it is.



This makes my point. The Democrats are fighting battles that were over years ago. In the 1930s, socialism still sounded good to a lot of people. We've learned a few things about it since then. And your last sentence pretty much states the whole problem with the party, doesn't it? "Strayed from where it says it is" sounds an awful lot like a euphemism for deceit.

[two more historical quotes from the early '60s, during which the United States was involved in an entirely different struggle]

Don't tell me the '60s were entirely different. If anything, the Cold War was more dangerous and expensive, racism was worse, and poverty was there as well. Yet the gutters were not full of dead and dying poor, the elderly got medical care (before Medicare), and there was a thriving middle class. It's worth noting in passing that the Federal Government now spends over three times--in constant dollars--what they spend when Kennedy was President.

Tell me exactly what has changed so drastically that what these Democrats said back then is now false.

In any case, I'm talking about here and now, and the policies of the Democratic Party of today. What do they stand for RIGHT NOW? The entire campaign of last week was based solely on demonizing the Republicans. Other than promising more free lunches, which depend on a healthy economy and enough wealthy people to tap, what else have they got? Besides the Free Lunch and wealth redistribution? Besides increasing the power of the central government whether it helps or not?

President Bush's victory resulted from all those people staying home on Election Day.

You can believe this if it makes you feel better. It may even be true.

I have seen Reagan elected by huge landslides. I saw the 1994 congressional victory of the Republicans. I saw the Republicans blow out the races across the country last week, including a ten point victory by Jeb Bush, who the Democrats swore on everything they held sacred they would destroy.

In every case, the liberal response has been some sort of excuse. Reagan fooled everyone. The voters were having a tantrum. All the voters were idiots who didn't know any better. Jeb rigged the voting machines.

Every possible rationalization except the truth: maybe the voters liked the Republican ideas better? Nahhhh.

"All our voters stayed home?" After the 2000 election squeaker, where every last vote counted? After being told this was their BIG CHANCE to rip Bush a new one? How nuts is THAT? The Democrats did everything in their power to inspire their base. And they still stayed home? Did anyone ask why? Maybe they should. And why did the Republicans come out then?

I'll get back to you on the Democratic Party = Socialist thing. You do understand I'm talking about the Party and its leaders, shakers, and advisors, and not the average Democratic voter.