Friday, October 29, 2004
Pure Opinion
There has been some speculation about how a loss on Nov 2 will affect the parties. Here are my 2 cents on the Republicans.
If we lose the party goes nutty. No one is happy with Bush, except the social conservatives/religious right. And no one in the rest of the party likes those guys. A Bush loss will discredit their power without leaving anything to fill in the gap.
Look at it this way: McCain, Buchanan, Schwarzenegger, Hagel, Romney at al. are in this party because they are not Democrats. On policy issues their commonalities are slowly disappearing. A Bush loss will mean an end of the Reagan coalition, which is now held together only by political necessity. But with the entrenched power of incumbents, Republicans will hold Congress for a few more years of directionless meandering.
Either a new leader will put together a new coalition, or this conservative cycle in American politics is coming to an end.
If we lose the party goes nutty. No one is happy with Bush, except the social conservatives/religious right. And no one in the rest of the party likes those guys. A Bush loss will discredit their power without leaving anything to fill in the gap.
Look at it this way: McCain, Buchanan, Schwarzenegger, Hagel, Romney at al. are in this party because they are not Democrats. On policy issues their commonalities are slowly disappearing. A Bush loss will mean an end of the Reagan coalition, which is now held together only by political necessity. But with the entrenched power of incumbents, Republicans will hold Congress for a few more years of directionless meandering.
Either a new leader will put together a new coalition, or this conservative cycle in American politics is coming to an end.
