Ninnies need not apply

The more I listen to Senator Daschle the more I am convinced that he believes the Dems will not take back the Senate in 2004. Why else would he refuse to follow Senate committee rules that his party wielded over the minority for more than forty years? This is a bell they may wish they hadn't rung.

What happened to the Democrat party? Once they addressed big issues with big ideas. The New Deal, The Great Society, The Civil Rights Act, The Peace Corps, The moon landing. When did they get so small as to be reduced to hanging onto power by race baiting, fighting over offices and committee seats? What next the cloakroom toilets?

Maybe the Vietnam War was their undoing but they should have regained their moral footing long ago. There have been many successes. Minorities have made tremendous gains in the past thirty years as African-Americans attended college, started businesses and moved into the mainstream middle and upper middle class. Hispanics are poised to follow the pattern. More children attend college than ever before. The most egregious environmental concerns addressed. Woman's rights secured. Of course they also had failures, the worst of which was their inability to see that welfare programs were destroying minority families. They embraced more than a few dubious Pols along the way. All things considered the past sixty years has been a success for the country and the Democrats...so why their decline? They barely cling to a majority electorate.

That the 24x7 cable news maw and instant fact checking of the Internet pared away their control over the media message hasn't been helpful. The Dems have not policed their own very effectively, too many scandals in leadership has eroded their moral authority. Look at the dwarves now elbowing each other for the presidential nomination. Have we heard one new idea that will actually change your life or mine for the better? No. They are too timid, too fearful of having an unpopular opinion. Too focus grouped.

We need a vigorous two-party system. Our body politic exists from election-to-election. No time to address the big issues...just get oneself re-elected. Perhaps this muddle-in-the-middle is a product of the information age...a normal progression as the electorate becomes more involved in policy, after all no one has sustained this Democracy thing before...we will get it right...eventually.