Getting old, so I can only hope the system recalibrates in my lifetime; but, I guess (sadly) my best hope is that the Democrats only screw things up moderately, so that in the next round of elections, or the next one after that, we see some balance. Or — a viable 3rd party that runs on “governance principles”, supported by Common Cause et al, rather than a political agenda. But, 2008 would be the ideal time for that, I think, and it ain’t happening except the extent that Unity08 is a viable entity.

In the long run it will hurt America because it will make the U.S. a single party state. Do you really want to the entire U.S. to function like the current District of Columbia where 90% of the people automatically vote Democratic becasue there is no functional Republican party?

I one day hope America will be a multi-party state, but I don’t think we should lament the destruction of the Republican party of it comes to pass. It has been devoid of any redeeming qualities in the last 7 years.

But at least 3 Congressmen may have to resign which also helps the Democrats. A GOP Senator is having ethics problems that could help Democrats. My prediction is that the Democrats will retain their hold in Congress and expand their margin in both houses. But, that is not necessarily a disaster since, they ran it for 40 years without total calamity.

They will have a harder time with the presidency- the country may still be stuck on voting for Christian white males.

I think anytime you have a large urban area with high crime and drugs, the middle class will leave. They did a lot of urban renewal under Tony Williams and attracted a lot of them to come back. Housing values went through the roof. So, I think your premise is off-that Democrats can’t govern. We’ve seen that one-party rule under Republicans was a disaster- from 2001-06- we had a failed executive and a Congress that was asleep, and rife with corruption. They rubberstamped everything that Bush wanted- to a higher degree than the Democrats have done when they have been in charge of everything. Jimmy Carter’s biggest enemy was Ted Kennedy. LBJ also had plenty of opposition from his own party on the war, and on civil rights legislation. Many of Clinton’s early measures didn’t pass- before 1994-he got more done with the GOP in charge.

With the gains that the Democrats are going to make in 2008 and 2010 along with the changing demographics, the Democrats will be unbeatable. There are at least 30 congressional districts where the Democrats can redistrict the Republicans out of a seats. Remember, any District that is currently 40% minority (other than Cuban-American dominated district in Florida) is an automaitc win for Democrats. The number of those kinds of district will grow.

The Republicans best hope was for President Bush to increase their percentage of midlde class and upper middle class whites. Yet his bad management, his budget busting spending, and his appeals to social conservatives while ignoring economic conservatives has alienated those groups.

The long term prospects for politics in the U.S. is that is will be blacks and Hispnaics voting for Jews. See California NY, or Maryland for good examples.

If you look at Repulblicans dominated states at least there is still a viable middle class that works in the private sector. That is much more than can be said for DC.

The problem is that even if they start voting to bring the troops home now, the rest of their voting record will be brought up again and again in the general. I think Democrats are going to use the same strategy as last time- which was to publicize the percentage that the candidate voted with Bush.
Changing their vote now might actually hurt them among the party activists who usually vote in the primaries.

But it’s already low enough for Republicans to see that distancing themselves from him is a pretty good idea.

So long as checks and balances keep the current abusers in somewhat of a check and dole out appropriate punishments, you’re getting the best you can hope for.

It isn’t a perfect system, and Republicans aren’t down for the count, but they’re suffering as they should for the mistakes they made. Eventually the tables will turn, but probably not this year.

BTW, next time don’t use the District- instead use Wyoming or Utah, LOL where they never elect Democrats!

There is always a tendency to straight-line project current trends into the future, as if new and unforeseeable events are never going to happen. But they always do.

Politics ebbs and flows, and this is just another of those. IMHO.

Oooops… When Bush started his War only 28 percent of us thought the war and Bush’s approach were insanely wrong… now most thinking Americans agree.

I’ll be back after I have more coffee and mow the lawn.

The remaining 28 percent still supporting George W. Bush are people I will never understand.

In the long run it will hurt America because it will make the U.S. a single party state. Do you really want to the entire U.S. to function like the current District of Columbia where 90% of the people automatically vote Democratic becasue there is no functional Republican party?

Steve K- proud of the 28% or the 72%? Even Carter didn’t leave office having destabilized the Middle East!