One thing is certain about our next Democratic President:

there will be no honeymoon.

There is no candidate – not even our beloved Al Gore -- who can bring an end to the partisanship we have now in Washington, not without turning his or her back on everything the Democratic party has stood for.

Our next Democratic President will be vilified by a substantial segment of the population, just as FDR was. Almost from the day of our new President’s Inauguration, the Republicans’ deadly drumbeat will begin, just as it did from the first days of Bill Clinton’s first administration, just as it did through Jimmy Carter’s administration. In the view of the Bush/Rove/Reagan Republicans, any Democratic President will be viewed as just another unworthy usurper.

How have we come to this sad state of affairs? It’s because the Republican party can no longer survive on its ideas (unless you call “cut taxes” or “be afraid” an idea). Philosophically, intellectually, morally, it has nothing to offer.

The only people the party can appeal to are the self-interested rich and the ignorant middle class. Since the numbers of those people are small – and dwindling – the party works to instill hate. The Republicans can’t beat Hillary or Barack or Chris or John or Dennis or Bill or Joe or Mike in a contest of ideas – but they’re world-class experts in pounding the drums of ridicule, division, and hate.

We must be prepared. And we have to stand together, all of us. We can’t let their hatred make us doubt each other’s good will or shake our resolve.

Barack, Bill, Chris, Dennis, Hillary, Joe, John and Mike: THANK YOU ALL for standing up for us.

Keep up the good fight.

and Scaife talking points at the ready, along with Faux leading the rest of the cable "news" outlets in what the "informed public" is supposed to be outraged about, and the conservative pundits appearing everywhere they can, sometimes having triple bookings tying up their schedules ...

"On the night of Clinton's election, Senate minority leader Bob Dole laid down the gauntlet, declaring that the president-elect had no mandate to govern: 'Put our votes together with Ross Perot, and we have a majority of the American people.' Dole branded Clinton's presidency, won with 43 percent of the vote, as illegitimate. The new president was a usurper."

...

"In the weeks before the inauguration, Republican strategists privately decided not to allow Clinton the honeymoon normally afforded to incoming presidents by both parties in Congress."

"Blinded By The Right", David Brock, pp 146-147

And unfortunately, I think we should expect that it represents the new reality.

K & R


:kick:

I was beginning to be afraid that no one was even going to read this.


:)

:kick: