25 February 2006 Blog Home : February 2006 : Permalink
But the [bumper] stickers which have caught my attention and which I think are part of a noteworthy political phenomenon here are those that say, in bold letters, "Re-defeat George Bush".
These, of course, refer to the election of 2000 in which more Americans voted for Al Gore, but which was awarded to Mr Bush by the Supreme Court after that voting snafu in Florida.
The stickers were part of the campaign of 2004, but were answered, it seems to me, by the result of that election.
The nation plainly elected Mr Bush - he won more than 50% of the vote - something Bill Clinton never managed.
So why is it that Democrats can't move on? The answer is that they don't know where to go.
On the Iraq war, for instance.
Are they for it or against it?
When it goes badly they are against it, but in the few months last year when elections were first held in Iraq they were rather for it.
andNow, there are plenty of Americans who still hold those [liberal/progressive] views, but the arteries which once fed them into the nation's vital organs, have been clogged or cut.
The universities do not have the power they did, professorial authority is less respected.
Most importantly, the worlds of entertainment and news (which used to pipe a vaguely left-wing message into the nation's homes) have been blown to bits by technological changes which render them powerless.
There are 600 channels on my television. I never watch any of them.
But if I did the chances that my neighbour has watched the same thing (particularly when you add the broadband internet options now available) have shrunk to virtually nil in the past few years.
The Democrats need a message and a new way of communicating that message to a mass audience. They have neither.