There is a very interesting piece in today's Washington Post about the Republicans recent Medicare victory. Putting aside the issue, the article examines what it means to both sides, politically. The point being that the Medicare victory was indicative of the Republicans unity and the Democrats dissonance. I've actually made reference to this in a slightly different way in the past. It's my belief that the Democratic party is at a disadvantage, at least legislatively, because their ranks are dominated by lawyers and the Republicans have more people from the private sector. Those buisness-minded Republicans are bottom-line and victory obsessed, whereas Democratic lawyers are usually more interested in protracted talks with little in the way of concrete yields (See Clinton, Hillary, & Lindsey, Bruce, i.e. Whitewater). They also seem to be, outside of the Christian Right, the more ideologically stubborn of the two. This prevents compromise, which is the key to being able to even share in contemporary American legislative victories.
Longtime party activist and strategist Harold Ickes, who worked for Clinton, sees this as the sorta start of a process where the wheels are coming off and the Democrats are facing being relegated into a permanent non-governing third party. After all, the AARP jumped ship and the Republicans were able to stake a claim to Medicare, perhaps the biggest (with the possible exception of Social Security) issue the Dems had. I'd like to see them use this as an opportunity to shake up the party and reach out to dissafected young voters, conceding the elderly to the Republicans and focusing on other voters. But old people are such a crucial voting bloc, and young people are so unreliable when it comes to voting, that this is unlikely to occur. What will probably happen is the Democrats will continue to compete for the same voters, and will do so on issues which the Republicans will now have the upper hand. A gloomy future for the party of Jackson indeed.
Not to totally bum you out, but there's bad news in the area of microchips being imbedded into human beings.
Tony
