The GOP’s Reality Check

The Republicans think that they should be a little concerned. This past off-off-season election didn’t help Republicans any. Two states saw their governors switch from Republican to Democrat. The voters in a little Pennsylvanian town of Dover threw out eight of their Republican school board members over the issue of "intelligent design", which got them the wrath of Ayatollah Robertson. The polls (if you can believe them) show the President’s approval rating in the toilet.

And the only people who really aren’t concerned about these things are the people in the White House… because they don’t have to worry about being re-elected!

SHOULD the Republicans be concerned? You bet your ass they should be!

But here’s the thing… these guys really have nobody to blame but themselves. They bet the bank on the Bush Imperium and on Tom Delay and DOCTOR Bill Frist. They believed themselves to be righteous when they were really self-righteous. They believed themselves to be unstoppable when they really were just pompous and arrogant. They believed themselves to be reformers and crusaders and saviors of the republic… when they were really just corrupt champions of the status quo. Even the cons and neo-cons are busy picking themselves to pieces over this matter.

But that doesn’t mean that the Democrats have it made for ‘06 or for ‘08.

The Dems have some serious issues to get over. The first being coming up with a REAL alternative instead of just more of the same with a blue ribbon instead of a red one.

Plus, the liberals or progressives or whatever you want to call yourselves really need to STOP trying to canonize the Clinton Regime. Bill Clinton was FAR from a saint, and his regime was FAR from saintly.

Recite this passage over and over in your heads: BILL CLINTON DID NOT BALANCE THE BUDGET! He didn’t do a damned thing to balance the budget. He was just president when it happened. WALL STREET balanced the budget! It was their record spikes and drops in the late-90’s that generated the tax money that balanced the budget. You guys essentially won the Stock Market Lottery. And because the reckless social spending continued, it was inevitable that the "surplus" money was going to go away at some point. It didn’t matter WHO was president at the time, it was going to happen. I can go on and on about this, but you can pretty much get the point.

Second… lay off the whole "Bush Lied" crap about Iraq. If anything, he was guilty of getting bad intelligence information. And it was the same kind of intel that was given to Bubba Clinton and the Democrats. As I’ve constantly said, you have to KNOW that something was false to be accused of lying about it. If you want to scream and shout about "liars", then start chanting "Rove Lied" or "Libby Lied". At least you can back that up with Plamegate.

Besides, there are PLENTY of other things that liberals could rant on about concerning the GOP and the Bush Imperium. The PATIROT Act alone would be more than enough ammunition. The close connection to religious extremists is another. The Energy Department’s torrid love affair with Saudi Arabia and their oil is a good topic, especially with the recent price spikes.

The point here is that the Dems have a solid opportunity to start from scratch and come up with REAL alternatives to the GOP. The people are frustrated, they're looking for change, and they deserve it. The liberals/progressives/whatevers shouldn’t be squandering this chance yearning for days gone by. Leave that to the conservatives… that’s their specialty.