Better standard of living, better medical care, better schools, better wages, lower crime rates. I’ve lived in Democratic states like California and Massachusetts, and in Republican states like Tennessee and Texas. Massachusetts even beats all other states in having the lowest divorce rate. What horrors are you imagining?

Bullseye!

DC isn’t a “state”: it has no representation in Congress, and that’s a big part of the problem.

As for MA and NJ, what’s so lousy about those states?

As for California… it has the 5th biggest economy in the world. I don’t see how being a Democratic state has hurt them.

When you look at the quality of life and relative prosperity of “blue” v. “red” states, it’s obvious the blue do better. Why is that?

What can the GOP offer? To use corporate-speak, what added value does it give to the country to justify supporting it?

I’m not reassured by seeing how readily Bush and the rest of the Republicans can raise money, no matter how awful their performance in office. That tells me the selfish, cynical people who see the Republican Party as an investment vehicle still think they’ll get their best return on investment by paying the right-wing extremist neocons’ way.

Because even established candidates were worried that they could lose this year. George Allen was supposed to be the next president, Richard Pombo had an lock in his gerrymandered district, The entire Republican establishment of Ohio and Kansas were reeling, a black Democrat nearly won Bill Frist’s seat in Tennessee. Previous elections were different – this year they were playing for survival, not ‘survival of the fittest’.

The Republicans were playing defense this year, and losing. Look at the list of candidates George Bush campaigned for in the last months – most were high level officers in red districts – and many of them lost.

In the long run, the Republicans will fad away due to demograhics if nothing else. Since 90% of blacks, 70% of Hispanics, and 65% of Asians vote Democratic no matter what, there is nothing that the Republicans can do in the long run to remain viable.

California is probably the best example. There is no prospect for the Republicans to regain a majority in California even though the Democrats have done a pretty lousy job of running the state. What California is today is what national politics will be by 2020.

The real question will be is what will the U.S. be like with only one viable political party. If you look at states like DC, New Jersey, or Mass. it will not be very pleasant for most people.

Isn’t it more accurate to say the Republican moderates were responsible for whatever obstructions you care to name?

If you’re wondering, here are the predictions I made a month before the election. Which, if I may say so, were pretty frickin’ on the money. I was wrong in only one very minor matter.

So please, let’s get over it: if the Republicans were so “miserly” because they routinely believe in “survival of the fittest,” you’d have to explain why they were NOT so “miserly” in previous elections. Which they were not.

As for BYG and others: I very much look forward to the day when Democrats hold the House, the Senate, and the White House again, which they undoubtedly will in the future. After all, as the Evil Satanic Demon Karl Rove has said many times, there are no permanent majorities in American politics. Democrats will be ascendant at times, and Republicans will be ascendant at times. That’s how the system works.

But it’s going to be instructive when such political naifs witness the day a Democratically controlled House, Senate, and White House all face an obstinate, obstructionist Republican minority that criticizes, demonizes, and obstructs everything they say or do.

Those with a little introspection will recognize it for what it is: the system as it’s always worked.

Social Security? No one favored that idiotic attempt to divert our retirement savings to the investment banks, and it was more the AARP (representing 35 million older Americans) that called the GOP on that crap than the Dems. All the Dems had to do was sit back and watch the Repubs grab the “third rail” and fry their domestic agenda.

The GOP’s crowning accomplishment is undermining the entire concept of government that works for the greater good of the country’s citizens. In no area of policy or legislation did the “common prosperity and general welfare” weigh at all with them. It was all about wedge issues, enriching their sponsors and themselves, and protecting a rogue Administration. Everything else didn’t just take a back seat; everything else never had a seat.

If the Democrats do nothing else, I hope they reinvigorate the most essential and basic foundation of America: a government of the people, by the people and for the people.

Given the GOP agenda the last few years, that was an admirable and desperately needed thing for Democrats to do. Trying to destroy the political opposition once and for all, operating the government like a vending machine for Republican’s financial backers, and pulling spite jobs like calling the Capitol Police to haul Democrats out of an empty meeting room just for spite don’t equate with good government, regardless of any ideological considerations.

Invading the wrong country on trumped-up charges and a campaign of, at the least, gross exaggerations if not outright lies, is downright evil. And please, spare me any nonsense about freedom and democracy in Iraq. Those people are free to be kidnapped, tortured, shot, burned and blown up, and precious little else.

Republicans would be wise to rid themselves of the neoconservative bullies, crooks and crackpot warmongers who’ve taken over their party and turned it into something ominously resembling organized crime.

Also, I’m not really sure what got obstructed.

Any explaination along these lines would be helpful.

There is virtually no chance for a Republican come back. If you look at the demographics of the United States, national politics around the time of 2020 will resemble California politics today.