Post-Election Reflections

Fascinating maps developed by the pattern recognition scientists at the University of Michigan provide additional insights into the location, relative weight based on population, and density of Republicans and Democrats throughout the U.S. Look at this cartographic representation of county level election results.

Like MSNBC's purple nation map, this map also shows the blending of red and blue toward purple to illustrate how both parties co-exist throughout most of the nation. When it comes to politics, the pot has clearly melted in large sections of the country.

To my eye, it looks like bands of red surrounding most of U.S. cities. Looks like Rove's suburb/exurb strategy was dead on. So, should Democrats head there too?



Map image © 2004 M. T. Gastner, C. R. Shalizi, and M. E. J. Newman
Reproduced under Creative Commons license.

If anything is perfectly clear from following the media coverage of the election, it is that the Democrats must get their own mean-spirited, vicious media attack dogs. They were sorely outnumbered by the right wing loud mouths. And they need moderate attack dogs who can stand on their moderate positions while at the same time make extremism itself and the hypocrisy of extremism the issue.

Bascially, they need two fixtures on every network, plus 10 or 20 for their own cable network. I know everybody thinks CNN and MSNBC are the liberal networks, and therefore presumably - at least according to the right wingers - the networks of Democrats. I'm not so sure though that Democrats have as strong an affinity for the liberal media as Shrill O'Reilly, Inshannity and Drug Limbaugh claim.

You don't have to be an extreme right wing idiot with your own talk show to see the folly of the extreme positions of the far left in the Democratic party. Moderate Democrats see it, too. But we also see the extremes on the right side and we don't much like that either. We like even less the Johnny One Note, liberal baiting, liberal hating, pompous, self-rightous, sanctimonious and holier that thou attitude of right wing radio and chicken hawk talk show hosts.

The higher they climb, the farther they fall. At the top of the moderate agenda on both parties should be a take down strategy to neutralize the right wing pansy asses and literally shut them up and shut them down. It's time to knock these turkeys off their bully pulpits. Let's see if they can take it like a man or if they turn out to be the pussy wimps we know they really are.

What should Democrats be doing prior to the next election? I don't mean what should the Democratic Party be doing to win the next time, I mean what should individual Democrats do?

I'll tell you what I, a life long Democrat, moderate on social issues and conservative on the economy, am very tempted to do: switch parties.

But not for the reasons you might suspect.

I'm considering doing so not out of any disgust or dissatisfaction with the Democrats, nor out of a fatalistic sense of "if you can't beat 'em join 'em," and it's not out of any desire to be on the winning side for a change.

I simply mean, screw them - not to hell with them. I mean, let's inseminate them.

I supported Kerry, but I wasn't that enthusiastic about him. The Democrats have certainly prevailed in the past and will certainly prevail again, so I'm not worried about that either.

No. What I propose is to inject some new genetic material into the DNA of the Republican party. In other words, to dilute the purity of the Republican gene pool.

If enough Democrats switch parties, the Republicans will have to shift to more moderate positions and enforce a moderate ideology on their own candidates. Then I wouldn't mind voting Republican no matter which party I belonged to.

You know, on second thought, to hell with them after all. Let's fix the Democratic party, find some decent candidates for 2006 and give them Republican turkeys a run for the money!

Is your record a statement of your accomplishments or merely a petard on which you will inevitably be hoisted during your campaign?

Can't we find candidates who are experienced legislators and who:

a.) Don't have any verifiable scandalous personal behavior in their past
b.) Do have a legislative record that supports their current positions

Where are the conservative, evangelical Democrats and the liberal, gay Republicans? I know it sounds absurd, and looking around today, it's hard to believe there could even be any such thing, and yet there must be somebody out there who falls into these categories. If there are, I certainly hope they organize themselves and manage to find a voice before the 2006 elections.

We know there are plenty of moderates in both parties, although it's hard to actually name more than a handful on the political landscape who proclaim to identify themselves as such. But surely the moderates of both parties when added together constitute a good 80%-90% of America. I hope they organize themselves and find a voice, too.