Will Dems De-Kook?

I'm a Democrat because:

1. It's always been that way

2. My late grandmother Margaret Collin would haunt me if I changed parties. As it is I feel an icy chill if I vote for a Libertarian or a Green.

3. It's always been that way

and

4. It's always been that way

Over the years I have become steadily disenchanted with my party. My party seems to appeal primarily to people who write formulaic, indignant letters to the papers:

To the editor -

As a (fill in this spot with your aggrieved group) I am outraged at the yah yah yah yah yah yah yah yah yah...

(signed)

C.L. Snodgrass
Third yurt from the left
Organic Wallow, Ore.

Also featuring prominently in my party are folks who regard 1968 as the high-water mark of American life, with protests, riots, assassinations and all kinds of groovy stuff.

These nitwits are organized - of course - into a group, Recreate68, which plans to do something at the Democratic convention in Denver.

Do their re-enactment plans call for authentic thumping of hippies by cops? I certainly hope so.

The party leadership isn't doing a very good job. In fact, I think it safe to call them utterly delusional.

Why? Last time around, they had as a target an unpopular blue-blood President, a Yalie Skull & Bones knucklehead with lousy rhetorical skills and a record of stunning mediocrity.

Who'd they choose? Their own blue-blooded Yalie Skull & Bones knucklehead with even worse rhetorical skills, a record of stunning mediocrity and a rich wife with a big mouth.

And now, as the result of forty years of identity politics, Democrats find themselves in a rather hilarious situation: Half of the delegates are afraid to go against Sen. Barack Obama lest they be called racists; the other half are worried that, if they go against Sen. Hillary Clinton, they will be vilified as sexists.

Which -ist is worsest?

Meanwhile a few pockets of intelligent life remain in the party so dominated by symbolic victories, shameless pandering and the usual patronage and pork. Bill Bradley's The New American Story is a sober look at America's current state that actually offers solutions - ideas that might not be to everybody's liking but certainly provide a place to start.

So after either Obama or Clinton gets whomped in the fall, will the Dems finally learn their lesson and start concentrating on results? Will the party get some guts and tell MoveOn.org to live up to its name?

What's it going to be: Hoopster or Hippie?

Bill Bradley, demonstrating his broad appeal, nails down the Guido vote, after helping remove the plastic cover from the sofa for the picture.