I’ve been thoroughly enjoying the many different press reports of the total despair engulfing the Republican party in Washington, D.C. and around the country. It’s amazing to see these people finally coming to grips with REALITY.
They’re obviously stunned, shocked, and disoriented, unable to figure out a way out of the quicksand they are now trapped in.
I remember one of David Brooks articles. I only remember the one. It was from September 2005 and it was entitled "The Bursting Point." He knew then what they are realizing now, what they should have realized in the runup and aftermath of the thrashing at the polls they took in 2006.
Over the past few years, we have seen intelligence failures in the inability to prevent Sept. 11 and find W.M.D.'s in Iraq. We have seen incompetent postwar planning. We have seen the collapse of Enron and corruption scandals on Wall Street. We have seen scandals at our leading magazines and newspapers, steroids in baseball, the horror of Abu Ghraib.
....
...there is a loss of confidence in institutions. In case after case there has been a failure of administration, of sheer competence. Hence, polls show a widespread feeling the country is headed in the wrong direction.
....
Katrina means that the political culture, already sour and bloody-minded in many quarters, will shift. There will be a reaction. There will be more impatience for something new. There is going to be some sort of big bang as people respond to the cumulative blows of bad events and try to fundamentally change the way things are.
....
We're not really at a tipping point as much as a bursting point. People are mad as hell, unwilling to take it anymore.
There are so many stories being penned about the emotional collapse of the Republican party over the past couple days in particular, it makes me feel like a kid in a candy store.....and every thing is FREE!!!
The New York Times features a story entitled Republican Election Losses Stir Fall Fears
Representative Tom Davis, Republican of Virginia and former leader of his party’s Congressional campaign committee, issued a dire warning that the Republican Party had been severely damaged, in no small part because of its identification with President Bush. Mr. Davis said that, unless Republican candidates changed course, they could lose 20 seats in the House and 6 in the Senate.
"They are canaries in the coal mine, warning of far greater losses in the fall, if steps are not taken to remedy the current climate," Mr. Davis said in a memorandum. "The political atmosphere facing House Republicans this November is the worst since Watergate and is far more toxic than it was in 2006".
The result in Mississippi, and what Republicans said was a surge in African-American turnout, suggested that Mr. Obama might have the effect of putting into play Southern seats that were once solidly Republican, rather than dragging down Democratic candidates.
The times also points out that the Mississippi race isn't the only evidence that something not in favor of the Republican party is going on.
Woody Jenkins, a Louisiana Republican who lost in a special House election this month, said in an interview that the high African-American turnout in his district was "probably the decisive factor" in his loss.
So the bloc of voters in the Democratic coalition that is MOST loyal is FIRED UP and READY TO GO!!!
But that's not the only voting bloc where the Republicans have much to be concerned about.
In a story entitled "Mississippi win bodes well for Democrats" - The L.A. Times reports:
And then there's this report from the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press. In surveys conducted from late 2007 through March, 58% of voters under age 30 "identified or leaned toward" the Democratic Party, compared with 33% for the GOP.
The 25-point margin for the Democrats in this age group is a big gain from an 11-point edge in 2004. But perhaps more disheartening for the GOP is this perspective from Pew analysts: "Trends in the opinions of America's youngest voters are often a barometer of shifting political winds."
So that's the gloomy picture for Republicans.
So Mr. Brooks was correct in his analysis back in September 2005. It was the only article ever penned by him that I considered memorable.
I'm headed back to the candy store. I just love this stuff. :)