Kos
writesevery bit of anti-minority party legislation the GOP implemented these last 12 years better be kept intact by the new Democratic leadership. Let them reap what they sowed. They deserve every humiliation they designed for those in the minority status.
Far from the "rolling re-alignment" of the party and the U.S. that Karl Rove envisioned for Republicans under Bush's reign, the anti-minority legislation of the Republicans will serve not to silence them, but to re-fashion the Republican Party.
As they are shut out of major policy decisions on Congress, forced to vote on the losing side of issue after issue, and effectively stifled by the majority party, the Republicans will need to re-locate their center. Rather than being far right, they'll need to gravitate toward the center, even toward the left, in order to be a player in political decisions. This will dictate what kind of future candidates we'll see from Republicans in the next few election cycles.
I think this is exactly what happened to the Democrats. The country moved to the right with the Republican revolution, and the country moved even further because of the virtual castration of the Democratic party. The democrats won both houses of Congress largely by being more centrist. I know it's conventional wisdom to say the Republicans lost, or that this was a referendum on Bush and Iraq, but Dean's strategy of running more moderate and conservative Democrats needs played a large part.
As a liberal first, and Democrat second, I'm concerned about having more pro-life and anti-gun control Democrats in Congress. Although Harold Ford, Jr. lost, I was very disturbed by his stance against gay marriage. Overall, I've been concerned about the Democrats increasingly conservative pandering over the last six years, backing down from gay marriage, initially backing the war, and the new Economic Nationalists.
But, from a more practical point of view, they had to do this in order to regain political power. I can only hope that they didn't sacrifice their soul to do so. If Democrats can hold strong in '08, however, then the Republicans will need to do what the Democrats did. Speak more to centrist positions, stop running so many social conservatives. If the mood of the country turns leftward, then maybe we can accomplish some of the things that so desperately need our attention, like healthcare, poverty, and the environment. Maybe, just maybe, we'll see a "rolling realignment" favoring Democrats.