Political post-mortems: Now what for the Democrats?

I am trying to get up at ridiculous hours of the morning and blog. We'll see how this goes. But it doesn't do me much good to send out my blog address to people if I'm only going to post monthly. So I'm going to try for something a bit more frequently, but still doable. Weekly, perhaps? Or even twice a week. My problem, of course, is that I am an editorial writer, really, and so just posting a snippet with a cross-link or two just doesn't cut it for me. I am used to sitting down for an hour or two, composing my thoughts and writing them down.

So those of you who have taken the time to visit here, bear with me! I will do the best I can to write as much as I can. I'd like to make it worth your while to type this URL into your web browser.

Ok, that nonsense being dealt with, let's get on with the business of political post-mortems.

I reviewed Instapundit yesterday and came across guestblogger Michael Totten's list of links to left-wingers' blogs, where some prominent (at least in the blogosphere) Kerry backers offered their reactions to Bush's reelection. I went to every single one and read each one's entry for the day. What an education that was. I have never read such a pile of stinking vitriolic slop in my life. Think of it as the web-browsing equivalent of being in that Chicago sightseeing boat that passed under the bridge just as a tour bus opened up its sewage storage tanks. Insults, profanity (of course - always profanity), condescending and degrading remarks. Those who think you can "reach out to" people like this are deluding themselves.

And let's be clear about just who is being degraded and insulted here. Bush and Republican politicians? Of course. But that's not the real story. It is those of you who comprise the 54 million-plus Americans who voted for Bush. Most (not all) of the people writing the entries on the blogs I read yesterday loathe you with a fanatical hatred that makes Osama bin Laden and Al-zarqawi look like a couple of Mormon missionaries.

Describing them doesn't do them justice. Here's the link to the Instapundit archive where you can read them yourself. Scroll down until you come to the November 3rd entry that begins with the title, "Left Wing Blogosphere Reactions." Do yourself (and me) a favor and peruse a few of them before you continue here ....

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Now then - let's ask ourselves a couple of questions. Do you really think that there's going to be any "healing" for people like that in this country over the next four years? I personally believe that millions of people voted for John Kerry because they are good, decent people who are frustrated with the economy, feel angry about being in a preemptive war in Iraq, and were desperate to believe someone who said he had a "plan" to fix those and other problems despite the fact that he was less than forthcoming about what those "plans" would be, exactly. People who fall into that branch of the Kerry camp are reachable. They are open to argument, receptive to facts. I am not referring to them.

But the "elites" - the media, Hollowwood, and the self-proclaimed intellectuals in our country will never relinquish their death grip on hatred and fury. In terms of "reaching out" and "healing," they are a lost cause; don't waste your time.

Having said that, however, there are things that can be done. In that vein, I was listening to Sean Hannity interviewing Newt Gingrich last night, and Sean asked what direction the Democratic Party would take, given its sound trouncing at the polls two days ago. Sean and Newt discussed various options - would the Dems try to pull back to the center? Would they abandon their ultra-left trajectory? Would they try to change their message to re-appeal to their traditional base (farmers, union workers, middle and lower-middle-class Americans)?

Here's my opinion: No way.

Any current pragmatic party leaders are facing the greatest challenge of their political careers. Because the Dems have become the party of irate, populace-loathing "intellectuals" and Big Lefty Money (George Soros and Hollowwood), they have sold their souls to a group of people whose two major issues are unabashed Marxism and abortion. They cannot, at this point, come back to the center, because to do so would be to lose their wealthiest, most vocal, and most active supporters. This is what I meant when I said in yesterday's post that the Democratic Party has lost the South for good, and that organized Labor would not be far behind.

That's why you will never, ever see the Democratic Party put up candidates like Zell Miller or Joe Lieberman for president. Their biggest backers hate virtually everything that traditional Democrats like that stand for.

So where is their future support going to come from?

My views on that question in the next post.