| A comment on demographics: In looking at the Clinton election results against both Bush and Dole, Clinton won a majority or plurality of every demographic group except white males and Asian-Americans (to whom he lost to Bush only). Now I agree that Perot may have affected the outcome, but it's pretty clear so far that the same is holding true for Gore. Those are potent voting blocs, especially since women make up a majority of the electorate, and minority groups are growing at much higher rates because of immigration and birth rates. If you want any view of the future, look at California, which every year has become more and more Democratic. If the Republicans really do want to be the majority party again, they will have to abandon Lee Atwater style wedge politics and cut their ties to the racists and bigots and religious fanatics. The whacko wing, while it makes up a reliable third of the Republican Party, makes it all but impossible for the centrists to make the pie higher, as Dubya put it. Being a former Bay Stater, I can say that I did admire the Republican Party that had Liberals like Ed Brooke, Henry Cabot Lodge, Elliot Richardson, George Romney, Nelson Rockefeller, and, more recently, Bill Weld. But that wing either does not exist or has completely capitulated to the right wing of the party today. Now the hot-button issues for the party are gun control, abortion, and religion in schools. How are these to appeal to liberal Republicans and moderate Democrats? |
