Advice to the Democratic Party

Here's a political thought as I pace around trying to see if Arkansas St. can hold off Southern Miss from scoring again and covering the 17 point spread:

I read Andrew Sullivan from time to time to get a fresh perspective on issues and events; Andrew is a libertarian, pro-defense gay writer. Andrew takes both parties to tasks for various reasons.

He does have guest posters come in now and again when he is on vacation; one such person today is an unknown (to me) who offers some very valuable advice to the Democrats. Here is the full link:

link

Here is the first paragraph, which is very much worth reading.

While more legally-minded types bicker over the legitimacy of the Bush wiretapping, it's worth pointing out that the odds of this fracas redounding to the Democrats' long-term benefit are somewhere between slim and none. Let's suppose, for the sake or argument, that John Dean is right, and Bush just became "the first President to admit to an impeachable offense." The Democrats aren't going to try impeaching him for it - they aren't that stupid, are they? - so all that the offense does, in the public mind, is add to the existing perception of the GOP as the party that sometimes goes too far and skirts the law in the pursuit of national security objectives. And it's almost always better to be tagged as "the party that might go too far" than as "the party that won't go far enough" - which is how the Democrats are perceived these days. This explains why the GOP can weather controversy after controversy, from Iran-Contra down through Iraq War intelligence and the secret prisons and CIA waterboarding, and still hang on to the public trust on foreign affairs - because in each case, they're perceived as having gone too far with good intentions, 24-style, and in an arena that most Americans perceive as being slightly outside the law anyway.


This pretty much sums it all up in a nutshell. I just wonder sometimes if the Democrats have a strategy at all and realize how they have painted their party not just for now, but for the next generation....