Stage is set for Rossi
Dino Rossi has given up his legal challenge of the 2004 Washington gubernatorial election. A judge there
ruled against his bid to unseat Christine Gregoire, the declared winner of the controversial race that attracted national
attention in the days and months following election day.
By losing an election in which a majority of Washington voters think he actually won, Rossi is in a
very strong position in the 2006 senate race against Maria Cantwell. He stands to win a good-sized sympathy vote as some Washingtonians will attempt to rectify what they
perceive as an unfair election result last year. The only problem is that Rossi has said he won't run. I hope he will reconsider that decision
now that the legal battles over the legitimacy of Gregoire's victory are over. I imagine Ms. Cantwell is hoping he doesn't change his mind. Run, Dino, run!
posted by Scott Elliott at 10:55am 06/08/05
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June 1, 2005
Not the mainstream anymore
The Democratic Party once enjoyed a breadth and depth of support that represented a true cross-section of America. Back then, they were
arguably the party of the people. Even my parents were registered Democrats well into the '80s. Over the last few decades, though, the Democratic Party
has been undergoing fundamental changes. They've moved away from down home American values that kept them in power for generations in Congressional, state, and local
politics. The voices and dollars of a new kind of suitor became too enticing.
In my lifetime, I've seen the Democratic Party abandon the mainstream American in favor of ever-clamoring special interest groups. Today the Democratic Party is a
hodge-podge of these groups and not much more. Ironically, many times, the only thread holding this precarious union together is their contempt for what they perceive
to be the great evils of our society - Big Business, Capitalism, The Military, The Christian Right, and Institutional Greed and Prejudice, just to name a few. The result
has been an eroding away of the very group which formed the backbone of their power in the past -
the middle-class. Amazingly,
Among white middle-class voters, the gap [between Bush and Kerry] was 22 percentage points.
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White middle-class voters were once bread-and-butter Democrats. Sure, they'd occasionally vote for an Eisenhower or Nixon, but for Congress or the Statehouse, they were
as blue as could be. Now, what is important to them is entirely different than what is important to special interests, the new muscle of the party, and so they've
exited en masse for the GOP.
As a result, Democrats are at a crossroad. They must decide if they want to continue the special interest love affair. They might be well-served
in taking this path. As more and more people view themselves as victims - the rite of passage into a special interest group - a workable majority could be fashioned from
these groups alone. On the other hand, if personal responsibility makes a come back and victimhood goes out of vogue, the political consequences could be disastrous for
the Democratic Party.
As a conservative, I watch this struggle with apprehension, not because I'm afraid of the Democratic Party turning around, but because of the opposite. Let me explain.
If the Democratic Party continues its slide into special-interest-group irrelevance, marching in lock-step with the far left fringes of our society, I fear the temptation
for the GOP to fill the moderate void left by the Democrats will be too great. This is the real issue here. As one party marches headlong into the liberal abyss,
it pulls the whole country to the left along with it. This phenomenon is ongoing in our society. What are considered solid conservative values and
policies today would have been viewed, in many cases, as liberal 100 years ago. So I hope the Democratic Party does decide to come back to the mainstream. Perhaps
then our country's slow drift to the left can be halted.
posted by Scott Elliott at 10:55am 06/01/05
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