Showin' some spine
I was pleased to read an AP article relaying some strong (and truthful) words from the Democrats in the Assembly about our Governor:
(I was also pleased to see that apparently the headline writers of the major newspapers across the state refrained for an entire day from using Schwarzenegger movie quotes.)
I was less pleased, however, to see that the Democrats in the legislature are repeating the errors that led to disaster on the national stage last year. I'll amplify this later, but I'd hope they would have realized that simply criticizing the guy and his policies--as correct as those criticisms are--will not defeat him, unless and until they can come up with an alternative plan.
And not just a plan, an alternative vision. I will undoubtedly beat this subject to death over the next few months, but until the Democrats begin to put together an coherent view of the world that they can at least pit against Bush's (or Rove's, or even Schwarzenegger's), they aren't going to win a thing.
Now, it's not clear to me that we can really look to the Democrats for a vision. At least not on the state or national levels. This is, after all, a party that's been slapped around for 25 years, and is just coming to the realization that being Republican-Lite is not going to work. And one significant strain of the party is these New Democrat types, who seem to really be Libertarians who feel guilty about it. Certainly no alternative vision is going to come from these folks!
Clearly, however, much of the party's rank-and-file feels the vacuum. It remains to be seen whether solutions to the Democratic party's shortcomings can come from inside the party.
"This is a governor that is strictly a pro-big business governor," said Nunez. "This is not a people's agenda; this is a corporate agenda."
(I was also pleased to see that apparently the headline writers of the major newspapers across the state refrained for an entire day from using Schwarzenegger movie quotes.)
I was less pleased, however, to see that the Democrats in the legislature are repeating the errors that led to disaster on the national stage last year. I'll amplify this later, but I'd hope they would have realized that simply criticizing the guy and his policies--as correct as those criticisms are--will not defeat him, unless and until they can come up with an alternative plan.
And not just a plan, an alternative vision. I will undoubtedly beat this subject to death over the next few months, but until the Democrats begin to put together an coherent view of the world that they can at least pit against Bush's (or Rove's, or even Schwarzenegger's), they aren't going to win a thing.
Now, it's not clear to me that we can really look to the Democrats for a vision. At least not on the state or national levels. This is, after all, a party that's been slapped around for 25 years, and is just coming to the realization that being Republican-Lite is not going to work. And one significant strain of the party is these New Democrat types, who seem to really be Libertarians who feel guilty about it. Certainly no alternative vision is going to come from these folks!
Clearly, however, much of the party's rank-and-file feels the vacuum. It remains to be seen whether solutions to the Democratic party's shortcomings can come from inside the party.
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