Personal Dork Assistant

Hip To Be Square?

The thesis for a new era of Republican dominance seems to make a lot more sense than the idea of an emerging Democratic majority. If nothing else, a 200 million (and growing) dollar advantage in fund raising gives Republicans a big hammer to smack down any aspiring Demo upstarts. The extra money also pays for organizations at the grass-roots level, like direct mail campaigns and phone banks to get out the vote, as well as nurture conservative groups on campus which act as farm systems for future leaders. I mean, don't these guys just look like LEADERSHIP?

The Democrats do have outside groups like labor unions to help with local organization. But let's face it, unions are dying organizations. Send the jobs to other countries, crush the unions, and improve the bottom-line in one stroke. What's not to love? On the other side, you can't really send the fundamentalist Christians offshore, and do you really want to mess with the gun nuts?

The Emerging Democratic Majority argues that the coalition of racial minorities and high-tech professionals will be the tidal wave to carry Democrats to power. Doesn't seem to be working in Texas, where Republicans have managed to co-opt the Hispanic vote and forced the Democratic state legislators to escape to Oklahoma in order to avoid being steamrolled by a Republican plan to redraw voting districts to their benefit. Even in California, Bush attracted 28% of the Hispanic vote, although they might not do so well if the G.O.P. decides to run Pete Wilson against Barbara Boxer for Senate. There aren't quite enough Asians, which isn't even a homogenous group. Sure, Asians have more money than other minority groups, but does anyone want it? Their economic conservativism probably trumps any social liberalism anyway, give-or-take education. A good number of relatives are probably loving the new tax cut. Free-trade with China is good, and the H1B/L1 visas are great ways to pick up a green card. Blacks have tried to become politically relevant for almost 150 years, and they're not, taken as granted by one side and dismissed by the other.

As for those professional idea-workers, most of them turned out to be Rand-roids who seem to think that the world can't get by without them. The implicit assumption being that the labor market is efficient such that their continued employment is an accurate badge of their value, while the unemployed are merely incompetent or stupid. Of course, they don't need a college degree to tell them that they're much smarter than those Indian outsourcers and those H1B's. These guys sure as hell don't want any interference from Big Government. Heck, the economy isn't even that bad, and the tax cut sure will come in handy for upgrading the home theater.

I'm not saying that a Republican administration is all bad. I mean, I'm all for having a death camp handy for those annoying people, as long as I decide who to send there. You mean I don't? Screw that, then.