Nancy Pelosi’s Blunt Warning To Democrats

I don't know about 1994, but the Democrats will lose seats in the double digits I suspect, maybe as many as 40 in the House. Probably a few Senators as well, the most likely being Harry Reid and Chris Dodd. Bye Bye filibuster proof majority.

1994 remains premature, unrealistic thought.

As for realistic thought: Oh, the irony -- Dems acting like Pelosi are the most at risk next year.

It may not be another 1994, but it most definitely looks to be the carbon copy of 2006.
Regardless of which party controls Congress, no one should ever have a fillibuster-proof majority.
Dangerous.

But yes.... Pelosi being voted out? Your lips to God's ears. But she can take rest in the fact that her district would vote against Christ if he had an (R) next to his name.

A lot depends on Democratic voter mobilization at this point. Republicans are fired up. Independents are leaning against the Dems - but not violently so in the ways they rejected the GOP in 2006 and 2008. However, if Democratic turnout is low even a mild Indie turn to the GOP could result in a major win for the Republicans. A stay-at-home base helped kill the GOP in 2006 and 2008 and it destroyed the Dems in 1994. When both bases are engaged the result is basically the status quo.

Her district would vote against Christ if he had an (R) next to his name.

It's true, I'm afraid. On behalf of the California 8th, I apologize.

And what positive alternative has the GOP offered? Sarah "death panels" Palin? !!

No need to apologize, brother. Just keep fighting the good fight.
And try to keep your wife from looking back on your way out.
Wouldn't want her to turn to a pillar of salt.
LOL

Well, it's time to post this up for my TMV friends, the closest thing I'll probably come to a personal political manifesto.

Why now?

My driver's license is up in just a few short months, and I'll have another chance to declare my party. For the past four years, I've been registered as "no party," having abandoned the GOP over my disgust with George W. Bush for his refusal to veto any spending bills that came his way, at that time, all sent up for his signature by a Congress controlled in both houses by his own party. To me, it was rank hypocrisy on from a party that had gotten into power on the promise of reigning in public spending, but when the rubber hit the road, they ballooned our annual deficit significantly, adding to the national debt.

So what will I do now? Will I remain so-called "independent"? No, and here's why --

I'm tire of the wilderness. I'm frustrated that in one of the most important elections in my life-time, I was shut out of the primaries of the only two parties that really matter, i.e. the GOP and the Dems. I've scoured the internet, and there just are no viable third ways. The other so-called "parties" are minor players that likely in my lifetime won't gain any more altitude than an overloaded 747 that crashes at the end of the runway. Like it or not, our system is "rigged" to favor the two parties, so any meaningful change is unlikely to come from outside that closed system.

I've considered going back to the GOP. As I have, the following obstacles (beside the aforementioned fiscal hypocrisy) have stood in my way:

1. The ascendancy of the Rush/Sean/Glen Beck wing -- It offends me that the voices with the most influence are those who can shout the loudest, and do so for no other reason than getting ratings or selling books. I listened to Sean's ten reasons to not vote for Obama right before the last election, and wasn't convinced by any of them. It was a collection of innuendo and half-truths. Rush and Beck seem intent on injecting race into it, and a racism cauldron that doesn't need to be stirred, conjuring up demons in the Old South and elsewhere.

2. The last two candidates -- I was hugely disappointed by Sen. McCain and his cynical pick of a beauty queen as his running mate. Events since that debacle have only confirmed to me that former Governor Palin is empty-headed and interested in only one thing, namely, whatever advances her own career. Now she is a rising star again, raising tons of money, and I can't bear to think listening to her for another election season. If she is the political template, then that's an unworthy role model for others in the GOP to follow.

3. Capital punishment -- I have never agreed with the inconsistency of a party that protects life in the womb but wants to use lethal injection or other ways to kill off convicted murderers. As a Christian, I am supposed to uphold the ethic of Jesus, and though trite, the question "What would Jesus do?" is still important. Can I see the Lord presiding over the killing of any human being, even the most vile person? To me, I might as well give up on Christian faith to do that, since our faith is all about transformation. Yes, there is capital punishment in the Old Testament, but it is contrary to the New Testament ethic. We live in a world where the U.S. is one of only a handful of nations that still has capital punishment on its books. Do we really like being in the company of regimes like Nigeria, Saudi Arabian, and Iran?

4. No room for thinkers -- I'm tired of the ad hominem that passes as debate these days in the GOP. I feel like Colin Powell before the election, who realized that the place for solid argument in his party had shrunk to unacceptable levels. The GOP likes to put the label of "elitist" on Democrats as if that is a dirty word. It's code for "educated," but since when was that bad? The fundamentalist attitude that rules out any evolutionary theory (even theistic evolution, which I espouse) as somehow being anti-God is incomprehensible to me. The recent move by parents to take their children out of school so they wouldn't have to listen to our President give a "stay in school" speech baffled me, and yet it is symptomatic of a deeper problem within the GOP that casts an eye of suspicion on things intellectual. The Republicans have forgotten that we are to "love God with all of our mind" (Mark 12:30) and that all truth is God's truth. As one of the stalwarts of the college from which I graduated put it, "There is no conflict between the best in education and the best of our Christian faith." That maxim has been forgotten by the Republican party, much to its detriment and the exclusion of its creative thinkers. The party is out of ideas because they've fallen into a knee-jerk group-think where too many bright young minds are heading toward the door.

5. Treatment of the gay rights issue -- While I agree that marriage is and should remain between one man and one woman, the strategy by conservatives carrying that banner has been wrongheaded. Instead of "changing hearts and minds," Groups like Focus on the Family have focused on opposing "special rights" for homosexuals. While Scripture is opposed to homosexual behavior, this kind of rhetoric strikes at the dignity of any person, gay or straight, and is reminiscent of our original Constitution that said slaves were only 2/3 of a person. In fact, marriage is not a "right" for either homosexuals or heterosexuals. Marriage is a religious term, a sacrament (or for some churches or for Jew/Muslims, a rite) of a religious community. The public dialogue should go forward on that basis. My fear is that the practical result of the opposition to "special rights" in the end produces extremists, whether Fred Phelps or more recently Steve Anderson, the independent Baptist preacher in Texas who has spewed graceless hatred against gay people under the guise of preaching. Such incendiary language can only lead to the spread of outright denial of legitimate rights (employment, housing, etc) to those who are gay. Citizens are entitled to full protection under the law.

6. Strong diplomacy, strong military - My nephew, a retired Army Captain, showed me the way forward on this. He served a tour of duty in Iraq, and before he came back, he switched his political affiliation to Democrat, which surprised me. In a nutshell, he saw overreach on the part of GOP leaders who sent soldiers into an ill-defined war for ill-defined ends. From my perspective, Democrats are more likely to foster both effective diplomacy and defense. Our foreign policy needs two strong arms, not just one.

So, as of today, on my Facebook page and elsewhere, I am self-declared as a conservative Democrat.

My hope is that through renewed engagement with a party:

1) A consistent life ethic can be promoted, i.e. opposition to both abortion and capital punishment. What else can "love your neighbor as yourself" really mean, if it doesn't include people from the cradle to the grave, whatever their moral failings? Rep. Bart Stupak of Michigan's 1st District and Sen. Bob Casey of Pennsylvania are two examples of the rising influence of the well-rounded pro-life position in the Democrat party, and that is heartening. They can count me in.

2) Secondly, I have hope that the kind of fiscal constraint that we saw under former President Clinton can be renewed in the Democratic party. He balanced budgets, and cooperated with the GOP in so-doing. The Blue Dog Democrats are a strong caucus within the party and stand to provide needed ballast on fiscal issues for some time to come.

Conclusion

I'm glad to cooperate with Democrats on causes of social justice (such as equal pay for equal work) and issues of poverty. While I'm not convinced that creating more government programs is the answer to all questions, there is a positive if limited role for government at all levels of society - local, state, and federal - as long as those we elect remain responsive to the citizenry. The idea of term limits should be dusted off as a Democratic response to the rising Tea Party tide. This would help dampen the influence of special interests on legislators, and return our country to the ideal of government by private citizens, not an entrenched political class.

I don't join the Democratic Party with naivete. It has its own share of "issues," but with the knowledge that it has historically been open to a broad spectrum of opinion, I have hope of doing my part, however small, in steering it in the direction of educated conservatism. If that hope can be realized within my lifetime, then the outcome would have been worth the effort.