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Thursday, June 22, 2006

Looking For New Ideas

I mentioned last week in "Kos The King Maker?" that at some point the establishment would start to decide Kos shouldn't be the King Maker. Evidently it's happening a little quicker than even I thought it would.

In this morning Washinton Post David Broder not only takes a couple of well placed swipes at Kos and his followers, but offers up some reading for folks looking for a different perspective from the Democratic party.

Thinking Outside The Blog, Broder's column, points out things that conservative bloggers and columnists have over the past couple of years, like Kos candidates folding in every election.

But the blogs I have scanned are heavier on vituperation of President Bush and other targets than on creative thought. The candidates who have been adopted as heroes by Markos Moulitsas Zuniga, the convention's leader, and his fellow bloggers have mainly imploded in the heat of battle -- as was the case with
Howard Dean in 2004 -- or come up short, as happened to the Democratic challengers in special House elections in Ohio and California.
Broder also points out that the Democratic leadership isn't doing much better in their own right, and doesn't seem to consider them much of a challenge at this point.

The new legislative "agenda" that Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid and Co. trotted out last week was as meager as it was unimaginative.
Broder leads usto two new groups that are starting to publish both online and in paper, as possible alternatives to the Kossites and netroots. This is probably a good thing, since they have proven, so far, to be more attention getting than vote getting.

Both groups are heavy on Clinton/Gore influence, which isn't surprising, since is the only Democrat to win the White House in the last 25 years, and the only one to win a majority of the popular vote in that span.

One that he doesn't seem to like, The Democratic Strategist, ends up hashing over Kos subjects, without the f-bombs and no new ideas. In my own scan of the titles and authors they could just as easily have named it the Liberal Manifesto Lite and been more on target.

The Democratic Strategist seems to offer little new to those looking for ideas from the party. And any publication that prints an article on "Dukakis Style Management" as a hope for the party probably needs a history lesson.

Broder was a little kinder to Democracy: A Journal of Ideas, which seems to have a little more thought provoking writing and realistic, though still idealist, views on how some things could be worked better.

Why would I, a generally conservative blogger want to point these out to you? Because as I've stated before, politics needs to get back to being a war of ideas, not ideologies. If either party can actually come up with solutions to problems, and present them in a way people will listen to we, as a country, can't help but be better off.

The current course of politics, with name calling, mudslinging, and 'gotcha votes' on irrelevant issuses needs to end. The Kossites aren't the solution to the left's problems in that area, just as Malkin and Coulter aren't the right's answer.

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3Comments:

Blogger ablur said...

The problem in politics is that we have moved to center so far that we no longer have a difference. We have republicrats and demicans. They use partisanship without purpose. Our political system has gotten so far from its purpose it will take a major effort to bring it back.
We vote people into office so they can take our thoughts and desires to office and make decisions that will reflect the people they serve. Honesty and ethics no longer have a place at the table. The campaign speeches are nothing more then Blah Blah Blah. They are surrounded by their family and they all are shining their support. Can anyone remember when a campaign speech actually meant something and a promise on the trail was kept?
There no longer exists two sides with an interest in uplifting America simply from different points of view. The"What's in it for ME!" crowd has taken over and we are losing control.

1:52 PM  
Blogger shoprat said...

Is the long anticiapted civil-war of the DEMs starting to happen?

3:30 PM  
Blogger Crazy Politico said...

Ablur, you're right on about honesty and ethics anymore, from either party. Both spend more time worrying about how to keep big donors happy than they do the folks who elected them.

Shoprat, I'm not sure if it's the civil war, but the more media that starts publishing things like Broder's column, the more likely it is the extreme left starts losing it's voice.

7:03 PM  

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