Mandate?

Why yes, I think so. Jon at Misplaced Keys has a "by county' map that shows many Dem strongholds, incuding California, are turning red, county, by county. The Democrats are becoming increasingly isolated in a sea of red Conservatives.

UPDATE: Today's SF Chronicle published the county map with winner percentage totals for the state. While California went into the Kerry column, we did so with only a 10.3% margin. The winning margin percentage in many "blue" states is growing slimmer each election.

Kevin Aylward thinks the Democrats have become a minority party.

Given the history of presidential elections, it appears that a Democratic candidate gets 40% of the vote for just showing up. Republicans historically did not have that kind of built-in base. GOP candidates had to reach out to Independents and continuously expand the GOP base in the face of the larger Democratic vote machine. Building on the success of Ronald Reagan's Dixiecrats (conservative Southern Democrats), the GOP has converted large swaths of former Democrats and Independents into Republicans.

The defeat of John Kerry proves that the historic equation has reversed. Democrats now cannot win a national election without drawing from a conservative/libertarian pool in the red states. The 40% Democratic base is not enough to win - period.

Kevin's not very optimistic about the Left's ability to take a lesson from defeat, that their response will be to ratchet up the anger and volume.

Personally I'm hoping that things like Howard Dean for DNC Chairman pan out. Keep pinning your hopes on P. Diddy, Michael Moore, George Soros, et. all. If they continue down that path they'll know exactly what Goldwater felt like in 1964.

It will be interesting to see how the left side of the aisle handles John Kerry's unwillingness to fall on his sword in order to provide the moonbat wing a hook on which to hang their hopes for 2008.

Posted by feste at November 3, 2004 03:19 PM | TrackBack