Time For a Split?

So for those of you who have been following politics, there are two major stories coming out now. Of course the Second Inaguration of President Bush and the official begining of his second term is big news, but what has caught my eye is the race for the chairmen of the DNC. The DNC is of course the Democratic National Committee.

In many ways the democratic party has been in disarray for a few years. In 1996 they lost control of the House of Representatives. In 2000, they lost ontrol of the White House and in 2002 they lost control of the senate. Clearly this has been a party that has been backtracking in recent years. Look at the results of the last election, even with one of the highest turnouts in history, there was a clear and decisive majority of voters that voted against the Democrats.

So for the moment the Democrats have no central leadership. Their Chairmen resigned in disgrace following another loss and two democrats have stepped in to vie for that spot. Former Vermonet Governor Howard Dean and Former Texas Rep Martin Frost are seen as the two major candidates. It appears that the Democrats are leaning more towards Howard Dean, and I think thats a major mistake.

Howard Dean is an extremist liberal. He is so far left that he is way past Green and closer to being a Socialist. In today's political enviornment, there are simply not enough socilaists in America. If Dean becomes head of the DNC he will split the party. There are many democrats who think this guy is far too left. For example a democratic friend of mine who is a historical/political expert said,"He's off to Lenin's Left." Asked if he would follow Dean if he were the DNC Leader, he said, "probably not". This is not the statements that the democratic party wants to see. The democratic should be picking someone who is inpsiring to their party base.

Dean will split the party becuase he is out of touch. The recent election has shown that the American electorate has moved a little to the right. By taking the democratic party far left,how will that help? If anything they need to adopt a more centralized strategy that appeals to conservative democrats and independents. In fact of my friend even said that by 06 or 08, he was likely leaving the Democratic party and will become an independent. Why? " I am tired of the democrats refusing to reach out to conservative democrats and independent voters." This is a person who was a strong democrat when I first met him 6 years ago, but is now a weak democrat.

With Dean in the Chairmenship role and Hillary as the candidate, the democratic party will see its biggest split since the time of President Jackson. The conservative democrats and independents will never vote for either candiate, and so those people will form their own party. The modern democratic party will be split between socialists and moderates. The influence will dwindle and it will be years before they regain their previous level of influence. If the democrats really want to win elections they will come to their senses and not nominate Hillary or Dean. The problem is that the democrats are desperate, and when people are desperate they do not think clearly. We could be seeing the end of the modern democratic party before our eyes.