>>>I mean, things are pretty even now, with
Repubs holding a slight advantage.<<<
I don't think they do. The momentum is all the other way. Incumbents did very well this time, as in most times of prosperity and peace, and that helped the Republicans hold on to most of their congressional seats, but they lost ground.
In the states they got killed. California is, despite what people say, overall a very conservative state. Reagan was no accident here. But you can paint this place solid democrat on the map for a few years. Plus the south started to swing back.
Politics is like a pendulum in some ways, and the pendulum is now swinging back.
The trouble for the republicans is they have no credible issues of their own left. What they were right about, the demos have capitulated on and coopted completely. On the democratic side, they have at least a half dozen major issues that are popular with the voters, which either the big business or the christian right supporters of the republicans can not and will not tolerate.
Will not tolerate. That's the republicans right now. In this election they painted themselves as nosey, unfair bigots, and it is going to be very hard to shake that, given what Clinton has in store for them the next two years. In fact they are going to lose what little reputation for tolerance they had, as organizations like the Log Cabin gay republicans are shunned by both the right and the left. (Fong proved that if you accomodate the Log Cabin group, other republicans won't vote for you, so they are left without influence. This has also happened to every other moderate or liberal faction of the republicans.)
Anyway, I'm done with this until 99. That's work interfering with my hobbies again.
Cheers all, and goodbye for now,
Chaz |
