A Kossack Handicaps the Republicans

Trapper John at Daily Kos ponders the chances of the Republicans running for President and concludes, "Jesus, this is a weak field." The piece is worth reading as an example of how leftists delude themselves.

First, he concedes that a Republican could win if there are "Scandals, terrorist attacks, dramatic cultural shifts"; apparently, these events make people vote Republican.

Then Trapper John looks at Giuliani, Thompson, Romney, McCain and "Everyone else." He bubbles over at the prospect of scandal taking down Giuliani; he mocks Thompson's anemic fund-raising; he asserts that Evangelical Christians will not vote for a Mormon, so Romney is dead; and he notes McCain's organizational and fund-raising woes.

In the entire piece there is only one thing missing: the Republicans' ideas. This is the left's big weakness in politics. They don't understand the importance of ideas. They think people vote Republican out of fear, tradition, racism, nastiness, greed, nationalism, superstition, homophobia, rage, hatred and more fear.

Since he does not address ideas, Trapper John misses that Giuliani stands for strong defense and recently unveiled a health care policy that is a step in the direction of a free market, not a government takeover. Next November, these are the issues Americans will be evaluating, and the common man is more rational than leftists give him credit for being.

It is obvious from this piece (and from the Democrats' record in the last few decades of elections) that if Giuliani is the nominee, the liberal-left will have their smear machine working overtime. They will ease their consciences with such banalities as, "Politics ain't bean bag," then throw all the mud they can at the Republican.

I get the sense that people are tired of scandals. I think they're ready to listen seriously to new ideas. If I'm right, then this trend would be the greatest catastrophe to hit the Democrats since the Civil War. Forget scandals and terrorist attacks, although you could call this a "dramatic cultural shift." If Americans shift toward taking ideas seriously, the Democrats will fall apart because they have succumbed to the nihilism and subjectivism of modern philosophy and no longer understand that ideas move the world.