Sidebars

I've removed some of the pics from the sidebar because the blog here has a much less political theme now, though I will continue to touch on the topic when I find the issue interesting.

I read an essay from Andrew Sullivan a couple weeks ago where he argues that the Republican party may be a minority for a generation. I tend to agree with that, and it's not just wishful thinking. What the public knows has eviscerated the Republicans, and what we don't know will come to light like a drip from a leaky faucet, guaranteeing public disgust for years.

Like any product, politics is all about branding. The Republicans were very good at that, but very bad at actually governing. Which is the party of "family values"? How about "small government" and "fiscal responsibility", or "strong defense"? The implication, of course, is that the Democrats are the opposite of those ideas as a result of constant shouting from the right. That's the branding. However, the Republicans have now branded themselves as corrupt, war mongering, religious nutzoids.

As opposed to the wingnuts, liberals and progressives tend to be very critical of their own politicians to the point it might even damage them. For a while I had been thinking that was a bad thing in the big picture because we have to control majorities. I'm starting to think now that the Republicans are so damaged that we can, in fact, pressure the hell out of our own politicians to grow a spine. We can drag this country much further left on social issues, and get some responsibility in government spending, and end this fucking war.

If we can get the Democratic leaders to do that, while at the same time fostering our own noise machine to reinforce the negative branding the Republicans have done to themselves, we'll see an overwhelming Democratic majority for years, and turn this nation progressive.