I preface these remarks with the disclaimer that I'm no longer a Democrat. I cannot co-exist with the Blue Dogs, who refused to pass Obama's programs and made Obama take the heat without a fair opportunity to show results.
I was an elected Democrat in my first career, and the Democratic Party got to tap my bank account for a few bucks every month on autopilot.
While I was a Democrat, I've never favored one party rule. That always ends badly.
And the Republican Party has a distinguished history.
It was Republicans who voted with mainstream Democrats to invoke cloture on the Dixiecrat filibuster and pass the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
Indeed, the first POTUS identified with civil rights was the Republican Abraham Lincoln.
The first POTUS who defended the interests of the 99% against the depredations of the 1% was the Republican Theodore Roosevelt.
Times have changed.
When, in American history, does one party hold power for more than eight years? When they are riding a wave of incredible popularity.
But, as we say in the stock picking game, past results are no guarantee of future results.
President Bush I followed President Reagan.
FDR was close enough to POTUS for life that the GOP amended the Constitution to insert term limits....just in time to limit Ike.
Before that? Martin van Buren followed the genocidal maniac Andrew Jackson.
What brings this up? The prospect of the first woman POTUS, Hillary Clinton.
Obama is below 50% approval and spends most of two terms there as a result of the continual faux scandals ginned up in the right wing echo chamber. If he ever had a real scandal, there would be hell to pay.
A month ago, there were three faux scandals at the same time, and they've all come up empty, such that the GOP is having huge back to back events in Nevada this week centered on...birthers.
So Sec. Clinton cannot ride a wave of popularity like Bush, like FDR, like Van Buren.
Therefore, she must rely on the continued self-destruction of the Republican Party.
That appears to be a safe bet so far.
In the last week, they buried immigration reform and tore apart the farm bill, separating farm subsidies (and substantially enriching them) from food stamps, which have been thrown under the proverbial bus.
They've made a huge issue of Obamacare covering birth control. In a dozen states where they hold power locally, they've undertaken a jihad against Roe v. Wade and they've tried to turn Planned Parenthood into the new ACORN, speaking of faux scandals.
In short, they are still fighting the war on women when they may be facing a serious female candidate.
They lost the youth vote big time, and they just used the filibuster to double student loan rates.
They lost the minority vote, including Asians and Cuban-Americans, where they traditionally win, and they continue to trash immigrants and fail to do anything about a broken immigration system beyond militarizing the border.
Their strongest candidate is Chris Christie, who will not fit in the Tea Party clown car, and therefore cannot get nominated.
This is a recipe for snatching defeat from the jaws of victory. While I'm not a Democrat, I can't picture the Republicans fielding any serious opposition to Ms. Clinton unless they have a soul transplant in the next two years.