evolution

thanksgiving

record voter turnout in kansas

4 Responses to “what’s the matter now”

1. Neil writes:
   11.29.2004 @ 19:15

   I saw Frank lecture in Lawrence. He was an effective speaker and made a few good points. By all rationale, Democrats have had the lower-middle class Mid-Westerners interests at heart more than Republicans in the past, yet there is this giant backlash against the Dems based on maybe non-political aspects of the Dem’s character: they’re too cool. They alienate more traditional value-oriented people by being hip. Also, Dems being so vocal about abortion and such forces these people to go Republican, when instead they should focus maybe the economy, or things that can affect them more directly. His argument, in a nutshell, is that Kansas Republicans are Republicans based on values rather than more tangible economic and political factors. Dunno if I buy it completely, but the backlash does appear to happen to some degree. Now, whether or not the Dems truly are in the Mid-Westerners best interest is another argument entirely.

2. j.d. writes:
   11.29.2004 @ 19:22

   I think it’s much simpler than that (although I think you’re mostly correct). I think that a large class of people are tired of being told (or having it implied) that they’re uncultured rubes for believing what they believe, and so are going en masse for the other guy.

   That’s partially what happened to me.

3. Neil writes:
   12.01.2004 @ 06:51

   But are values (morality and such) the correct things to focus on when making a political choice? It’s not a rhetorical question, it’s something I grapple with. I’d like to think I vote based on tangibles, but, for example, I have to admit that I was looking forward to a religion-free four years in the White House, among other things.

4. j.d. writes:
   12.01.2004 @ 16:11

   That’s a good point - one which you ought to make to Democratic party leaders. There’s a sizable (and growing) class of conservative voters who are not particularly religious (or not at all, e.g., me) who would make the same point to the Republican Party (of which I am not a member, mostly for that very reason).

   But really, in the end, all most people can do is vote for the things that speak to them. The difference between people like you and other liberals are that you’re not willing to call them idiots for it (at least not publicly).

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