DEMS WON'T SACRIFICE POWER TO HELP THEIR BASE

So who loses as the Democrats cruise to what they imagine is certain victory in 2008 in both the White House and the Capitol?

Many will reactively think the Republicans lose. But do they? I remember a liberal colleague who bristled while expressing her concern to me in 2001 when Bush took office, wondering whether the country could survive a Republican President as well as Congressional majority.

My answer was simply this. It doesn’t matter. Perception is everything and whatever happens on their watch, the Republicans will be blamed. I told her that they will be blamed and they will pay, which will eventually lead to a majority in the other direction.

There’s nothing prophetic about that. It’s just common sense…Ass backwards common sense, which is the only kind that seems to work for the confused and uninformed electorate in this country.

Now with Hillary or B. Hussein, or both, racing for the White House next year, history will repeat itself as it does term after term after term.

So back to the original questions; who loses? The main constituency of the Democrats, that’s who loses. With the general public seething at the Republicans, deservedly or not, the Dems are getting away with ignoring their base.

Certainly the GOP screwed up big time and deservedly got tossed from office. They got arrogant, fat and imperial. The people spoke in numbers in November and summarily booted them out. Did they deserve it? Hell, yeah!

Too bad though that the vast majority of voters I spoke with didn’t have a clue as to why they hated the Republicans or what they thought the Democrats would do. They just wanted “change,” which they think they got.

The Dems gave us a peek at how they are treating their constituency when Newt Gingrich last Sunday singled out the Detroit school system as a disaster that is crippling young Americans. He pointed out the failures of that system in how they only graduate 22 percent of freshmen on time, citing the Gates Foundation. Fully 75 percent of Detroit public school students do not graduate on time, which leads to a 72 percent unemployment rate among African American males in the city and a 60 percent chance of going to jail by the time they reach their mid 30s.

The official reaction? Very predictable by anyone’s honest measure. District officials were quick to defend the fine job they’re doing with (to?) the children of Detroit. The city’s largest employer (city government being the second largest) is fraught with waste, bureaucracy, absenteeism, cronyism and overall incompetence…obviously.

Where is the Democratic Party? They won’t say anything to criticize the school system. School districts, along with most government entities are union, protected by archaic rules and tend to vote Democrat so they can stay safe and inefficient.

The Democrats won’t chance offending their core constituencies simply because keeping these groups status quo, keeps the Dems in power. And that is tragic!

Are the Republicans any better? No! And they’re just as scared of attempting to do anything for fear of alienating the very people who won’t vote for them anyway.

So the losers, my friends, are the folks who lose time after time. The so-called underclass that Democrats claim to champion, and that mistakenly think are being championed by the Democrats.

If the Democrats were to get serious about caring for Americans, they would lose their power. And that’s simply not an option…for them.

To quote Newt, “The crisis is simply a failure of citizenship.”

What a shame….

JD.

Ps. I love Texas! I spend a fair amount of time in the Lone Star State and absolutely love it! Though it’s somewhat embarrassing having affection for a state from where the Dixie Chicks came.