Democratic Party slow death?

Just looking over some electoral college voting resources, and it occurs to me that with the exception of Clinton, the Dems have been pretty much getting crushed since LBJ/Goldwater in 64. Sure, Carter won, but it wasn't by nearly the margin usually enjoyed by the Republicans.

Anyone have any thoughts as to why we see this overall shift toward conservatism?

http://fisher.lib.virginia.edu/collections/stats/elections/maps/index.html

I think that most Dems have good intentions, good moral values, etc., but, imo, I think the demise of the Democratic party is due to the far left who boisterously condemn Republicans and anything they do, just because they are Republican. I think both parties do this but the far left has been more vocal and people don't want to hear the critisisms as much as they would rather hear a way to solve the issues they are complaining about. I used to vote Democratically, but now I lean to the right because I got tired of the all the negative rhetoric coming from the left about things that had nothing to do with the problems we face today. There has been good suggestions from both sides, but the partisanship is keeping us from getting anything important done. It's easy to bitch and complain about anything the other party does, if a dem was in office the right would be doing the same thing, but the only way anything is going to get done is if we lock an equal amount of people from each party in a room on each issue and tell them you can't come out until you have an answer to the problem.

Sorry got carried away....

Because the Dems just can't stop feeding the trolls in the far left wing of their party. Despite what the polls from your Liberal colleges and Liberal media outlets keep assuring you, most Americans are...

1. Not in favor of abortion-especially late-term abortion
2. Of the mind that America is the greatest nation on earth and are tired of Liberals trashing it every chance they get
3. In favor of gun ownership
4. In favor of the death penalty
6. Against illegal immigration
7. Against drug legalization
8. Anti-UN

The Dems need to get a leash on the Deans, the Clintons, the Pelosis, the Kerrys, and for GOD'S SAKE-the Kennedys.

Come to the middle.

You want abortion-start talking bans on late-term abortion and start talking up father's rights. Want to get rid of the death penalty-get serious about Jessica's Law and stop talking about how we need to sympathize with child rapists. You want more immigrants-secure the borders and streamline the immigration process. Want legal pot-crack down hard on everything else.

Also, stop with the asanine, partisan bickering and stonewalling. It's clear to the public when the Dems are going against something the public wants just because a Republican asked for it.

So long as the Democratic party continues to sound like the Lefties in these forums, their grip on power is going to continue to erode. So long as they continue to try and drag America into the French mold, they are going to lose votes.

...thank God...

-Kiamat Dusk

I'd hardly call the last election a crush.

links please --cos I think your "facts" here are way off.

Enlightened people don't breed, they're too busy having a life.
Red-state red-necks have lots of time on their hands and nothing better to do than drink beer, screw the wifey and beat up the kids.

I am....

1. Pro-choice; anti late term/partial birth abortions
2. America is the greatest country on this planet and has the right to lead by might
3. In favor of gun ownership
4. In favor of the death penalty for non-circumstantial evidence convictions
5. Against illegal immigration; I'm from California and immigration is a serious problem
6. Pro-drug legalization
7. Anti-UN

------------
Briana Dawson

Agreed, to be sure, and I had a feeling I'd hear that from you.

It just seems to me that there has been an overall slide towards conservativism in the past 4 decades, and was soliciting people's thoughts (whether they agree or disagree with my perception).

And Kiamat, I think there's plenty 'o trolls to feed on both sides of the aisle...

I think that our world becomes more corrupt, greedy and decadent as time passes, and the Republican party best respresents this. It's all about "grab the cash and power and screw everyone else" these days. It's been that way thoughout history or course, but for a time the United States actually seemed to try to be "better". That didn't last long.

I've seen more lying, cheating and stealing from our government in the past few years than even I thought possible. And people blindly, or with intent, support such behavior as long as they get to watch some patriotic soundbytes from time to time. It's sad, but we've stepped past the point of any return to a government for the people, and have fully turned over the United States to corporations and greed.

I'm not in favor of abortion as a means of birth control. I also recognize that it's one of the muddiest issues imaginable and don't expect everyone to feel the same way, and I'm familiar with both population statistics and the grim historical reality of back-alley abortions.

America is the greatest nation on Earth. It also has a lot of room for improvement. The far-right tends to be really good at slogans like 'My country, love it or leave it!' and shouts down anyone pointing out inequalities and irrationalities that they, personally, favor.

I own a Sig P245, know how to use it, keep it in a secure location, and think that anyone without a criminal record who passes a (fairly stringent... more rigorous than, say, Tennessee's) course of study should be allowed to carry a concealed firearm.

I'm in favor of the death penalty, provided the conviction is cut-and-dried. Multiple reliable witnesses and photographic/video evidence, say. Otherwise, too many families have already been told 'well, gee, I guess we kinda screwed up when we fried 'im, huh?'.

I'm against illegal immigration, pro legal immigration, but sorta lament a world where immigration controls need to be a bit draconian. I'm a realist, but that doesn't mean I can't regret things that are necessary.

I think drug penalties for users should be far less harsh than they are, and penalties for dealers should be in direct proportion to the amount of drug dealt and the overall harmfulness of the drug. Pot should be legal, heroin dealers should be thrown to the sharks.

I'm not anti-UN. I think a worldwide governing body is a good idea, if kept a loose infrastructure designed primarily to promote peaceful debate and problem-resolution. On the other hand, many people seem to dislike the UN because they opposed the US invasion of Iraq... which, by UN law, was an illegal invasion, and an act that has cost us a great deal in terms of international goodwill and support. We aren't the World Cops.

The Reps need to get a leash on the Bushes, the far-right Christian fundamentalists, and (oh God please) need to put a mask on Rice.

I agree on late-term abortion being disallowed, and think that fathers should have rights. And in point of fact can legally claim some. And in point of fact are often too irresponsible to do so, and the woman is by and large going to be the primary caregiver, and therefore I feel that the law should show some favoritism to my gender in this matter.

Come to think, I agree with a lot of your post... I'd point out, as far as the remainder goes, that what is good for the goose is good for the gander. The Republicans posting here (not all, but a great many) are often espousing a far-right line of God-is-law gibberish that I find very disturbing, and feel would knock our country back into the late eighteenth century.

You wouldn't even call the last election legal ! Which brings me to another point-stop being such poor losers!

As for your links:
Rebublican controlled Senate:
http://www.senate.gov/

Republican controlled House of Representitives:
http://www.house.gov/

Republican controlled White House
http://www.whitehouse.gov/


And, yes, there are extremists on both sides of the aisle-I just think we do a better job of keeping ours in the attic and away from the public.

-Kiamat Dusk

I'd call the election legal --but only technically. The efforts in Voter suppression in Ohio alone certainly can't be ignored.

http://ohvotesuppression.blogspot.com/

as for your links they don't give out anything remotely suggesting your "facts" on the american people's beliefs by percentage --so I'd ask you to really give me those --I'll wait --don't rush.

This is a perfect example of what I'm talking about. Moderation. A little bit of this and a little bit of that.

Legalized pot...not heroine
Legalized executions...with lots of solid evidence
Legalized abortion...but not late term abortion

Stuff like that. But the Democrats are always all or nothing. I think you could convince middle America that legalizing pot isn't going to turn everyone into crack addicts...but when you wanna legalize everything "cause they're just gonna do it anyway" or because "it's their body" then the American majority tunes you out.

Oh, and get off your Princeton educated high horses, too. Hard to get votes from the heartland when you're calling everyone with an American flag a "jingoist" or part of "great unwashed". And the majority of Americans identify as Christians so maybe you wanna throttle back on all the anti-Christian venom like we see all too often here in the forums.

-Kiamat Dusk

I note you passed over this lil tidbit of voter suppression...
http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/news/a/2005/01/24/national1242EST0521.DTL

-Kiamat Dusk

Here --I'll break them down for you, since you're too lazy.

1) Abortion: According to Gallup, 16% of Americans think abortion should always be illegal.
while 81% of amricans believe there are reasons for abortions to be legal under some circumstances.
http://www.religioustolerance.org/abopoll05.htm

2) America is greatest nation: According to Zogby Most Americans think this country is heading in wrong direction
http://www.zogby.com/news/ReadNews.dbm?ID=1020

3) Harris Poll finds that a 63% majority favors stricter gun control, and an even larger 72% majority favors stricter control of hand guns.
http://www.harrisinteractive.com/harris_poll/index.asp?PID=89

4) Public Divided Between Death Penalty and Life Imprisonment Without Parole.
http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org/article.php?scid=23&did=1029

5) You had no #5

6) Illegal Immigration issues are non-partisan.

7) Majority of Americans favor legalized marijuana
http://www.medicalmarijuanaprocon.org/pop/votesNat.htm

Liberals and Democrats are not anti-american so I have zero clue what this means.

The conservative shift is just a part of the long shift in power that has been taking place since the late 40's and the end of the Second World War.

Up until that time, business interests (and specifically the capitalistic interests of the "military industrial complex", were separate from the interests of the country and the people. Government was not seen as "a business" and the primary motivation of government was not seen as the promotion of business interests.

This sector (the "military industrial complex", has been slowly taking over since that time. Infiltrating democratic institutions and weakening human rights, essentially destroying the notion that the citizens come first and consolidating a kind of pyramid of power throughout the democratic system that controls it, from the outside.

With the Kennedy assassination of the late 60's and the subsequent Watergate fiasco, they found out that they can literally get away with anything. Make people believe anything, even the opposite of reality.

By controlling the media they have made us all believe that the concerns of business are our concerns and that no mater left or right, we have to do the thing thats good for "business" as if capitalism was not a political ideology in itself, but rather some neutral language that the left and right must both use.

This leaves us with a "left wing" represented by people like Clinton, who in the 1970's would be considered a conservative. There is no more left, there are only a few nutbar commies on the extreme end like there have always been, and everyone else has rushed to the middle or the right. The most "left" of the conservatives today would be an unelectable right-wing demagogue of 20 years ago. George Wallace, who couldn't get elected during that period because of his extreme right wing views, would be a "leftie" compared to most of Bushs friends today. The respected left wing leaders of the 60s and 70s would be commies and traitors by their words and actions today.

In short, you have been manipulated, convinced of a world view that those who actually run the country (and the world), want you to have so they can run their plans more smoothly.

I didn't find allegations of a minor act of vandalism that nobody was a convicted over to quite measure up to the vast amouint of info I provided on a concentrated effort by the Republican Party to block votes in Ohio.

But if you think five kids allegedly slashing some tires but not found guilty is big news --okay.

This attitude is part of the reason the Democratic Party is losing ground, because a lot of the people that are the heart of this country are called by them and their supporters stupid, no-lifers, and wife-beating assholes, among other "you don't agree with me, therefore you suck" names.

Personally, I think all the "major" political parties in the US are varying degrees of suck, primarily due to their being controlled by the vitriol-spewing, hyper-partisan, small-minded extremists and whackos running rampant in the party structures, actively supressing more moderate positions within their own parties.

Frankly, at least in the abstract a revolution (and I don't mean a figurative one, I mean a literal revolution) is looking better and better all the time, as more moderate party members seem increasingly unable (or unwilling) to put a muzzle on the raging loons holding the party reins.

Can you come up with some results that don't rely on the bias of a confessed Liberal Democrat (John Zogby) or come from Leftist websites?

http://www.americanthinker.com/articles.php?article_id=3975

-Kiamat Dusk

sorry. The "Leftie" sights seem to be the only ones that aren't exclusively about Brittany Spears and Pig's Knuckles only.

Just wait til 2006 elections. I think "ya'll" in for a shock.

And there you go with the elitist arrogance that keeps your side from power. It's amazing how such a powerless group can be so high and mighty. It's like the less power you have, the bigger your ego is.

-Kiamat Dusk

And it amazes me that the rightwing get away with calling working men and women elitest while bending knee to their silver spoon corporate Masters.

I couldn't have said it better even if given months to try. Nice post.