Chicago Boyz

That’s my advice to this guy – though he seems to have arrived at the same conclusion on his own, and good for him. I don’t understand how he could have stayed in the political closet for so many years, but maybe that’s just me. Being discreet about your beliefs (in our society; I’m not talking about Iran) may help your career in some industries, and makes socializing easier in some places, but it has costs. Being open about who you are makes it easier to meet like-minded people – there are usually more of them around than you think – and you get to find out who your friends really are. You also won’t be as conflicted in dealing with people, which means you’ll get along better even with the ones whose values you don’t share. Think of it as a way to transfer the burden of worrying about your unconventional beliefs from you to someone else, for a change. As for people like Stern’s blind date, who fled when she learned he is a Republican, fuck ’em. Life’s too short to hang around with jerks, and he was wise to force the issue with a prospective marriage partner. This is why, contra conventional wisdom, it’s not necessarily a bad idea to discuss politics when you go on a date. Then, if things go really well, you can make the second date a trip to the shooting range.

(via Instapundit)

(Again).

So much for a Democratic resurgence. Janet Reno is out and about, rallying the Demo base in her customary charming way:

. . .Reno spoke about visiting the Dachau concentration camp in Germany as a child and learning what had happened.

“I went back and asked my adult German friends, ‘How could you let that happen?’ ” Reno said. “They said, ‘We just stood by.’ “

She looked right into the the audience and told them that’s why she was there. She had no intention of just standing by.

“And don’t you just stand by,” Reno said.

Isn’t that cute. Do you think the listeners got the point? I like the way Drudge helpfully put it: “In Speech To Dem Club, Janet Reno Appears To Compare GOP Agenda/Nazi Atrocities…”

Reno earlier gave some practical advice:

“We should be more organized than the Republicans who have traditionally out-organized us,” Reno told the audience of about 60 people.

That’s a good point. Reno is certainly doing her best to organize Republicans.

(This started as a comment to Lex’s thoughtful post and I got carried away.)

The Democrats can’t win on the economy as long as the main question is how much to cut taxes. Nor can they win on defense while the central issue is a very serious war and the central question is how aggressively to prosecute it. In each case the best they can do is act like Republicans Lite, in which case they lose because voters will prefer real Republicans. Where have we heard such ideas before? Bush is making brilliant use of the same tactics which Clinton used to such good political effect against Republicans for eight years. Now as then, the opposition party finds itself stuck in a seemingly endless cycle of lamely reacting to the President’s initiatives.

I think the Democrats can get out of it, but tired hacks like Lieberman aren’t the answer. There may be, however, opportunity for a party that shows sincere concern for civil liberties – something that neither party currently exhibits. Of course, this path may be anathema for the Dems, whose leadership is dominated by amoral statist authoritarians who are hostile to self-defense and on the take from trial lawyers, environauts, race hustlers, the entertainment industry, and other groups hostile to the open society.

But if the Democratic leadership could, somehow, become again as sympathetic to individual rights as, say, Hubert Humphrey was, they would likely pick up votes from independents and libertarians for whom the Republicans are now the lesser of evils. Probably lots of people who vote Republican have deep misgivings about the drug war, about extra-judicial detention of U.S. citizens, about the Bush administration’s eagerness to impose dubious snooping and data-mining schemes on us in the name of fighting terrorism, and about other similar issues. Given the closeness of current electoral divisions, a pro-individual-rights Democratic party, even one that was still on the wrong side of taxes and defense, might pick up enough support on the margin to win elections.

Will it happen? I doubt it, at least in the short run. First of all, the current Democratic leadership is reflexively pro-government to the core and likes things as they are. Second, the war could last for a while, and it crowds out most other issues, making it difficult for Democrats to do much except go along with the Administration’s agenda. But in the long run it’s conceivable the Democrats will become more open to a radical reorientation if they keep losing. And if they did transform themselves successfully it would pressure the Republicans to start paying more than lip service to issues that are now seen as the province of the libertarian fringe. Maybe this is all wishful thinking on my part, but we live in an age of radical transformations all over the world. Something in the way of an anti-government upheaval has been simmering in our politics for years. If anything it has quickened since Sept. 11. What happens if Democratic candidates see this as an opportunity and run with it?

And not a minute too soon. I hate the months when there is no election on the immediate horizon.

Dick Morris, the maestro of the tactical, has this analysis of how Bush’s tax cut package is ingeniously packaged to raise maximum election day Hell with the Donks. Woo hoo. It makes perfect sense to me:

[The] deal -with the Democrats and moderates in his own party – looks like typical legislative compromise, but is actually a move of incredible political acumen: The “sunset” provision, under which the tax cut automatically lapses unless expressly extended by new legislation, makes taxes a front-and-center issue of the 2004 election.

Now Bush can send refund checks of $400 for each child to 25 million households this summer, slash the tax on dividends and capital gains to 15 percent and reduce tax rates on all three brackets – all effective immediately – and still be able to base his re-election campaign on the need to preserve his tax cuts.

The president can run for re-election with an economy stimulated by his tax cuts and still have the issue to use in the ’04 contest.

With the tax cuts slated to expire in the opening years of the next presidential term, every Democratic candidate will have to answer the question: “Will you support extending the Bush tax cut?”

A “no” will be required to win enough primary votes to get the nomination. But a “yes” will be necessary to prevail in the general election. Bush has put the Democrats in an impossible position.

Dude. I am liking this. It sounds good.

On a related point, the Washington Post notes today that Bush Fills Key Slots With Young Loyalists. It then quotes some “veteran of White House meetings” as saying: “These new folks are going to pull their punches at first. They don’t have the gravitas.” Whatever. They’ll get “gravitas” soon enough, by good and loyal job performance. The point is that Bush is getting a team together of young fire-eaters that can work sixteen hour days up to and through the election. And he is training a next generation of GOP leaders. Also noteworthy, the younger GOPers are more ideologically conservative. They are more hardcore.

Bush’s 2004 election campaign is going to be a sight to behold. I am hoping for a crushing win. Early signs bode well.

We are aware of the difficulties readers have been experiencing in viewing this site. I don’t know what the problem is, though I suspect it’s not unrelated to Blogspot. We have a new site, almost ready to go, awaiting us on a more reliable hosting system. We will move as soon as I can figure out how to transfer our archives to the new blog. (Joe Katzman has been kind enough to make some helpful suggestions in this regard.) Thanks.