Suppose for a moment that, for the sake of hypothesis, Dean takes the primary, and the GOP-predicted McGovernesque debacle occurs. Dean loses by a landslide, and drags down the DNC in the Congress as well. The GOP retains the White House, and gains in the Congress.
What do you think will happen then?
The GOP will only be emboldened. They will be more bellicose, obnoxious, and cynical then ever.
Fine.
The question is, what do you think will happen to the people who produced the "Bush Hatred" backlash already in play?
In direct words, do you really think it is a good idea to have a subset of the population, with good reason, to be so horribly angry, and then to have the antagonizing power (the "right") simply aggravate its bad activities?
Is it really good to have the more rational part of the mass public body - which lefties and liberals are, undeniably - a group composed of educated, urban professionals to a far greater extent than the rural GOP base - growing ever more angry and estranged from some cynical puppet-masters and the sheeple they play like a harp? Is it really a good idea for the already savage degree of alienation in what Howie "the Hack" Kurtz himself refers to as "educated secular sophisticates". Do you really want the better half that angry?
Just something to chew on in the back of your mind, whoever you are reading this. Time and history don't come to an end in 2004. In fact, they are (as always) just starting.
(This "GOP" bunch really needs to ask what it is doing to this country.)