The Rage of a Once Great Party

I don't think we are going to see a Kerry victory for a variety of reasons. Nor do I think we are going to see a civil war between Democrats and Republicans as some have suggested, although as Nativeborn shows, some Democrats are finally letting out their violent impulses without restraint.

But the truth is that we are in a moment of transition. This is the election where it finally becomes obvious that the Democrats are a party on the decline. There is no other rational explanation for the kind of out of control hate, vitriol, resentment and rage which we are now seeing from the remnants of what was once a great party.

We never saw this kind of thing while the Democrats were secure in their power and position. As long as they ran things, and the Republicans kept their place in the background, every leftist Democrat was happy as a clam.

What has changed is that the Dems have begun to suspect that they are not going to get their power back for a very long time. The years of Clinton were a temporary respite in a downward spiral which continues to this day. And this election has made it clear that if they do not win back their power in the White House and the congress, they will most likely be out of power for a generation or more.

For older baby-boomers who have placed their faith in the leftist illusion of big government, that means that they will be long dead and buried before the Democrats get their hands on the wheels of power again. That is the real fear which sits like a stone in the stomach of every Democrat who sees power slipping away while a conservative Texan sits in the oval office and outwits them at every turn.

It is just too much for them to bear to face both their loss of power as well as the realization that their lifelong dream has failed and they will never see it come to pass. It is no wonder they are out of control.

I think that the decline of the Democrats has been well under way for some time, probably going back to the Carter years. But the Clinton years masked the change because there was no overwhelming reason to be concerned about the leadership of the country.

Sure, both Republicans and Democrats had problems with Clinton, for different reasons, but in retrospect those things seem very small and far away now. The 90's were, as Krauthammer said, "a holiday from history."

During the 90's we knew that the Soviets were no more and we didn't think that we could be threatened by any other major power, at least not without having a good, long warning beforehand. We knew about the Chinese making noises from time to time of course, but there was not a major country which could challenge us on the battlefield. No other country would even send jets up in the air to fight us because they knew that they would be shot out of the sky. And so we were complacent in our knowledge of our own power.

Now, after 9-11, the situation is completely different. We know that we can be attacked, and without an army having to march ashore either. Our mindset has changed because we now see what we did not see before. The Democrats have not adapted to this new reality because they cannot. It just does not fit with their world view. And so they fight and fight to roll back the clock to the days before 9-11 in the vain hope that all of the rest of us will somehow forget.

But of course, we won't. And that is why the Democrats are doomed. They are still living in the past and they refuse to adapt to the new situation. They are dinosaurs at the moment of change. And we all know what happened to them...