Post Mortem

It looks like Goerge Allen is going to be forced to concede, thus ending the career of the only Senator known to have stuffed the head of a deer in an African American's mailbox. (Now, I've seen my share of college pranks, but that one takes a hell of a lot of work. First you have to find the deer, then you have to kill it, then you have to saw off its head, then you have to drag it to the mailbox and stuff it in. At some point, wouldn't you just say, "aw, fuck it - I'll just TP his house. But, I digress...)

We're already seeing the analysis that tells us that voters weren't voting for Democrats, they were voting against Republicans. Democrats had no plan.

Let's pretend this is true, and try to forget for a moment the fact that the Democrats put out their First 100 Hours Plan weeks ago. The Republican party has won in previous cycles because they mercilessly appealed to their base and ignored the portion of the country where their ideas are not popular. Bush's approach was you're either with us or your against us. Isn't it understandable that, with the political dialog dominated by this approach, sooner or later a bunch of people would say, "well I'm not with you...".

The Repbublicans got beaten on Tuesday because they have completely lost their way. Blue-blood, corporate types are saying, "I'm not sure that I'm with you," as evidenced by the fact that there's only one republican congressman in New England. Traditional conservatives, such as William Buckley and George Will, are disillosioned because of the Iraq adventure and overspending. Religious-types are turned off by the constant scandals and sexual perversion. The Republican party, which found its vessel in the conservative movement, has lost its sense of identity.

It is silly to act as if this is an example of just a few bad apples run amok. This failure was top to bottom. From Hastert, to Delay, to Bush, to Lay, Wolfowitz and Foley to lesser known types like Ted Haggard and Ralph Reed. The corruption of the Republican party encompassed people from virtually every wing and every level of the GOP. To attempt to separate the conservative philosophy from the leaders charged with implementing it is absurd.

Republicans can disect the results any way they want, but if I were them, I wouldn't take too much comfort in the notion that voters didn't vote for democrats, but against republicans. If that's true, it signals a judgement rendered on a movement, 40 years in the making, and a rejection of a philosophy that was supposed to deliver a permanent Republican majority.