A Few Father’s Day Morsels

Posted by Bob Lord

I found this nugget somewhat buried in today’s Sunday Review section of the Times: 

http://campaignstops.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/06/14/the-democratic-road-not-taken/

Take a few minutes to read it.

Hart explains, far more articulately and insightfully than I could, how the Democratic Party has become entirely result oriented over the course of a few decades, failing to adapt to changed conditions and devolving into a party not about principles but about winning elections through a triangulation strategy of placing itself half a step to the left of the Republican Party, wherever the Republicans happen to be at the time.

Somewhat beyond the scope of Hart’s piece is a discussion of why the devolution of Democratic principles has occurred. Extrapolating from his logic a bit, the most likely explanation is that the Democrats simply are unwilling to pay the short-term cost of being principled. If you go back to 1964, Goldwater got creamed in the Presidential election, but the principles he espoused, distasteful as they are to many of us, allowed the Republicans to dominate elections for a generation beginning in 1980. If the Democrats want to re-establish themselves and, at the same time, move the country in more hopeful direction, they likely will need to lose a few election cycles until the voters decide to give new progressive principles a chance.

There’s also this piece in today’s Huff Po: 

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/17/mitt-romney-immigration_n_1603549.html

You could see this coming on Friday, as soon as Romney reacted to Obama’s masterstroke immigration policy change. It’ll be interesting to see how this plays out, especially in the Latino community.

Happy Fathers Day!