When discussing politics I refuse to be put in a position of defending
"liberals" like Ted Kennedy or Bill Clinton. I will defend the Nebraska's
Kerry ... . Anyway the rhetorical device I use to shit focus back to the
issues is that Reagan was the selective pressure that created Clinton.
Reagan was called "The Teflon President". Bill is called "Slick Willie".
What's the difference?
My impression of this year's election is that enough people realized that
"The New Conservatism" was not necessarily looking out for their best
interests. One interesting statistic I've heard is the amount of spending
done by Republican's vs. Democrats. Republican spending is about 1.5 to 2
times that of Democrats <depending on how many "soft ads" you count>. In
the same sense that Mr. Brodie is right that the total banishment of Tobacco
ads would cut down on smoking I think the total banisment of soft money
from politics would cut down on voter apathy and confusion.
So, while this year's election wasn't the populist rout that Michael Moore
envisioned, it seems that enough people decided that the far right was wrong
to cause them to look for deeper cover - and thust Spkr. Gingriche's
decision to step down.
Again from a memetic view point this wasn't a loss for the right ... it just
wasn't a big enough win ... yet they are moving into "damage control" mode.
I predict the beginning of '99 will be a fine time to mine new memes in the
republican rhetoric. It might be interesting for the mailing list to try to
predict/track the issues for 2000. Any ideas of what'll be hot?