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June 10, 2005

Why the outrage?

Some of my beloved (and I mean that sincerely) colleagues around the lefty blogosphere are shaking in their shoes over Dean.

Kos asks why?

Bush's legions consider their party a white, Christian party. Such as these guys:

Toni Brandon, 33, said she hadn't read or heard any news about Mr. Noe or the Bureau of Workers' Compensation scandal. She and her eight-year-old son waited on a small hill near I-70 to try to catch a glimpse of the President as he headed toward the event. "We love the President. He's a Christian and these people are evil,'' said Ms. Brandon, referring to the protesters. "I have plenty of military background in my family and all of us love the President. I wish we had a flag to wave."

So again, why all the outrage, when Republicans themselves make the same case?
But what about the "white" part? AMERICAblog is on it. From a study last year:

Of 3,643 Republicans serving in the state legislatures, only 44 are minorities, or 1.2 percent. In the Congress, with 274 of the 535 elected senators and representatives Republican, only five are minorities - three Cuban Americans from Florida, a Mexican American from Texas and a Native American senator originally elected as a Democrat. 'President Bush's home state leads the way. Texas, with a minority population of 47 percent, has 106 Republicans in the state legislature, but there are 0 blacks and 0 Hispanics among them,' Sperling writes.

That Native American senator is gone, replaced by a Latino Democrat. There are no African-Americans Republicans in all of Congress.
That qualifies as "white". And it definitely qualifies as "Christian".

So why the outrage? Why is the truth so painful to the Kool Kids, Republicans, and spineless Democrats?

Bingo.

The GOP stopped playing nice three decades ago. "Liberal" has become a dirty word (though we're slowly turning that around), "Democrat" has become synonymous with "immoral" and "weak".

Dean is spot on with his comments. Not only are they honest..they're the required harsh rhetorical pieces of the lexicon that the left must use in order to push back.

Republicans have been winning elections by moving to the hard right and pushing the country along with them. The Dems must move to the left and push the country along with them if they want to win. That won't happen with DLC/spineless Democrats and leftists shaking in their shoes every time Dean gets tough.

Bandwagoning with the GOP every time Dean says something controversial and harsh only cements that Dean is "bad" or "crazy".

This circular firing squad has got to stop.

Update: Maha gets it:

Let's pretend the Dems are on a sinking raft, and somebody has to be tossed off the raft. Who would you toss? Ben Nelson or Howard Dean? Hmmm...

Ben Nelson is a DINO who votes with the Republicans but who gets catered to because he's keeping a Red State Senate seat for the Dem party. I'm not saying the guy should be handed his hat and told to go home. He deserves respect as an elected representative of the state of Nebraska. He is entitled to input on legislative and other matters being considered by the Senate. But as far as Democratic Party matters are concerned, Nelson should (politely) be told that if anyone cares what he thinks, they'll let him know. And don't bother to wait by the phone.

The Dems may have a polarization problem, but IMO it's not the problem they think they have, or the problem Bill O'Reilly thinks they have. What the party leaders should be worried about is not the polarization between Democratic and Republican voters, but the polarization between Democratic voters and the Democratic Party.

Absofuckinglutely.

NWPT53

Posted by Carla at June 10, 2005 12:57 PM