Text 17603, 85 rader
Skriven 2006-01-26 13:33:36 av Alan Hess
Ärende: Republicans play game better
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I've said this myself - the Republicans play the game of politics better than
the Democrats do.  

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http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/opinion/oped/bal-op.kinsley27jan27,1,7957772. 
story?coll=bal-oped-headlines
Reality: Republicans are better at playing political games


By MICHAEL KINSLEY

January 27, 2006

It seems to be time once again to play Kick the Democrats. Everyone can play,
including Democrats. The rules are simple. When Republicans lose elections, it
is because they didn't get enough votes. When Democrats lose elections, it is
because they have lost their principles and lost their way. Or they have kept
their principles, which is an even worse mistake.

They represent no one who is not actually waiting in line for a latte at a
Starbucks within 150 yards of the East or West coastline. They are mired in
trivial lifestyle issues like, oh, abortion and gay rights and Americans
killing and dying in Iraq, while the Republicans serve up meat and potatoes for
real Americans like privatizing Social Security and making damned sure the
government knows who is Googling whom in this great country.

Just repeat these formulas until a Democrat has been sent into frenzies of
self-flagellation, or reduced to tears.

There is always a pick-up game of Kick the Democrats going on somewhere. But
something about the Alito confirmation - the pathetic and apparently surprising
inability of 45 Democratic senators to stop 55 Republicans from approving
anyone they want - seems to have made the game suddenly a lot more popular.

How dire is it for the Democrats? George Will noted on TV the other day that
they have lost five of the past seven presidential elections.

The official illustration of the Kick the Democrats movement is a map of the
United States showing huge swaths of red with just a few tiny accents of blue.
Of course, this gives an unrealistic advantage to big states with few people.
But then so does our electoral system. The deeper flaw is the assumption that
everybody in red states is red and ditto the blues.

A map showing red and blue people, not states, would look a homogenous purple.
John Kerry got 43 percent of the vote in states that went for George Bush, and
Mr. Bush got 45 percent in Kerry states. Liberals are not nearly so rare and so
culturally isolated as the official map would suggest. This is little comfort
to Democrats when it comes to the math of winning elections.

This is not an argument for complacency. Obviously the party that has lost the
White House, both houses of Congress and now the courts needs some new ideas
and new energy. But it seems undeniably true to me - though many deny it - that
the Republicans simply play the game better.

I've been impressed all over again the past couple weeks with the Republicans'
skill at political stone soup - making something out of nothing. In this case
it's a remark by Hillary Clinton comparing Congress to a plantation.

Near as I can tell, the alleged objection to "plantation" is - by analogy to
the Holocaust - that any metaphorical use of the word is an insult to the real
slaves and their descendants. This particular stone soup would be overheated
even if the ingredients were fresh and sincere.

What's especially impressive is how the get-Hillary campaign was not even
slowed by the discovery that Newt Gingrich had used the same metaphor back when
he was somebody. A hilarious op-ed this week in The Wall Street Journal
explained that while Ms. Clinton's remark was "pandering" and patronizing
("Must blacks have their slave past rubbed in their face ... ?"), Mr. Gingrich
"had the good taste to cast himself as a slave who would lead the slave
rebellion." Well, each to his own good taste, I suppose.

And then there was a small 2001 item in the Journal's news section about Vice
President Dick Cheney spending the weekend shooting quails at the "plantation"
of a rich Republican contributor. Hillary Clinton uses the word "plantation"
while Dick Cheney actually goes to one. But that's the Democrats for you: all
talk and no action.

Michael Kinsley is a commentator who lives in Seattle. His e-mail is
michael.kinsley@hotmail.com.

Copyright + 2006, The Baltimore Sun | Get Sun home delivery

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