A transformative president A transformative president

Michael Barone: A transformative president makes a number of good points.

Liberal Chris (commenting at polipundit.com) is right about complacency. It led to arrogance, which was one part of the reason that the Democrats finally fell. I think also that control of the House in particular, and the Senate to some extent, became the end itself, and not the means to some other end. In other words, the pursuit of elective office became almost purely the pursuit of power for power's sake, and not what could be done with the power.

The result, as pointed out in the article, is that for the most part, the Democrats are right now intellectually backrupt. Almost their entire theology is that they are not Bush and not Republicans. That is what they stand for, and that is what Mr. Kerry, in the end, stood for, and one of the reasons why he lost.

I am sure that there are some good Democratic ideas out there. We are just not seeing them right now. Hopefully, for all concerned, they will utlimately bubble up.

After all, it is much easier to win when you are in favor of something, when you are running for office to do something, instead of just keeping the other guy from doing something.

I am reminded (due to somewhat personal circumstances) of addiction recovery. It is said that until an addict hits bottom, he isn't going to make the committment he needs to start his recovery. Before that, he is in denial.

I am seeing this right now with two quasi-relatives of my girlfriend. Both are tweakers (meth users) in their late 20s. And both are still in denial, not having quite hit bottom yet. Both have lost quite a bit already. The guy is probably going to lose his family, and is certainly facing bankruptcy. The girl is now a convicted felon, facing more jail time for an extreme DUI. He, at least, admits he is an addict. Just isn't ready to deal with it yet.

The Democrats seem to be in a similar position. The high of 60 years of power is still with them. Maybe they can maintain that high just a little bit longer if they just lie a bit more (which is one reason I see an analogy with tweakers). Stealing (in this case, votes) is also ok, as it will just help maintain the high a little longer.

Hopefully, for their benefit, and the benefit of this country, they will hit bottom pretty soon, and admit that their problems. And then they can start the road back to recovery.