Partisan Politics

No one agrees with everything any party stands for, not even the folks who put together the platform. For example, I think the GOP is wrong on the drug war and wrong on reproductive rights, and I much prefer the libertarian wing of the party to the religio-moralistic wing. I also think that GOP talk about reducing the size and scope of government is, in practice, mostly talk. There are plenty of Republicans who share that disagreement. But compared to the Dems? Not remotely close.

You can sneer at partisan politics, but politics is organized around parties. Without parties, there is no politics; the stronger and more competitive the parties are, the better politics you get. (Non-partisan voting is just voting; politics is everything that comes before that.)

Anyway, the problem right now is not partisanship, it's that one of the parties is running on empty, so voters do not have the benefit of a principled and articulate opposition, which presents a coherent alternative program and direction. That is not a good situation for the country, but I'm not sure what the Dems' options are. Every innovative idea they might come up with will be vetoed by one or another of their constituencies (teachers' unions, trial lawyers, elderly advocates, minorities, public employee unions, etc.). They seem to be hamstrung to the point where about all they can advocate is the expansion of existing programs. That's how adding prescription drugs to Medicare ended up being paraded as an innovative idea. Pathetic. Unfortunately, it looks like they may elect Nancy Pelosi as Majority Leader to replace Gephardt; she's a San Francisco Dem who will take the party further left, and straight down the drain. Harold Ford, a young moderate black from Tennessee, would be an infinitely better choice, but this bunch seems to be on a mission to oblivion. If Pelosi get in, look for a number of Dems to switch parties.

Byron