Paul,
A portion of your argument, a very significant portion, mirrors John Judis' argument in his book, The Emerging Democratic Majority, which I've been trying to get Bill to read. His argument, a bit like the WP journalist piece from the Atlantic Monthly I just posted, is that the Reps are completely captured by their base which is growing smaller. And no matter how the Reps wriggle they will not be able to connect with your "Eagles." It's the Dems in Joe Klein's DLC embodiment that will do so. New Jersey, for Judis, is one of the states which illustrates the argument best.
You can find a link to the book on Joshua Marshall's weblog. talkingpointsmemo.com,
or
amazon.com
I'm not prepared to argue with Judis on political strategy grounds but would argue, from further left, that this emerging consensus leaves the American urban poor, and the cities in which they live, behind. But that's another long argument for another thread. |
