Reply #30: no, David Broder is an unregenerate and a moron.

[Lexingtonian]

There are so many bad generalizations in what he says and what you claim that I can't possibly try to lay them out.

As for what you're complaining about: Republicans promised exactly this. If you lived through the Eighties you know that "We will lower taxes and free markets" means you'll get pay the same or higher taxes and get screwed out of services while your job goes to India. "We're the party of leadership and a strong America" means shitty uncalled-for small wars and torture. And "We're the party of Values" means that lies, bigotry, egotism, and corruption are going to be the major themes of their rule.

The major fallacy you champion is that somehow The People is pure and well-meaning while the politicians are the source of all evil. Republicans and moderates now are very exactly still the Americans portrayed in "From Here To Eternity", which is set in 1941. Contrary to what you believe, our politicians know this set of Americans better than they know themselves. They know them for the fools and bigots they are, and that's how they play them. Until these voters become ashamed of being fools and bigots, they will (and perhaps deserve to) get played this way. You also ignore that, in indirect fashion, people who feel obsolete do vote/act for their own physical or psychological destruction.

Democrats are tasked with being the Party that guides into the Future. Republicans are tasked with being the Party that relives the Past and (thereby) destroys it so that no one wants or can afford to politically live in it anymore.

You personally can't get that JFK Era America back that seems to be your ideal and what you imagine Democrats have to champion. There is no "the" middle class, there is "a" middle class- the caste system of once is disappearing. You can't get that back.

Politicians are looking at The People and seeing it in Denial of where we really are, seeing sheer Avoidance of what is necessary to do at some point. If it weren't for massive fools' pride, we wouldn't be Iraq now. If it weren't for massive racism and classism, we'd have national health care by now. If it weren't for a secret massive amount of greed, the energy industry and other resource plundering outfits wouldn't be this deregulated.

The reason why the country is in misere is because of its overt and latent 'conservatism'. And yes, it's The People far more than the individual idiots it permits to rule.