Ah, yes, follow the money:
More than a third of the top fundraisers who helped elect George W. Bush president remain on the sidelines in 2008, contributing to a gaping financial disparity between the GOP candidates and their Democratic counterparts.
Scores of Bush Pioneers and Rangers are not working for any Republican candidate, citing discontent with the war in Iraq, anger at the performance of Republicans in Congress and a general lack of enthusiasm. More than two dozen have actually made contributions to Democrats.
Ordinarily I would never say something like this, but I think the presidential race is over. Whoever wins the Democratic Party’s nomination will be the next president of the United States. Progressives might find a hero in Sen. Chris Dodd, if they want to pour their energy into the presidential race, but they would be better served to focus on local and state-wide races. Even though we are probably going to have a cautious, centrist, interventionist president, we are actually a nascent movement that represents the future of the Democratic Party. Politicians that have come of age during the Bush era are fundamentally different kinds of politicians from those whose beliefs were forged in earlier eras. We need lots of new blood. We need people like Jon Tester, who said he didn’t want to weaken the Patriot Act, but to repeal it.
The older generations have an ingrained belief in the superiority of conservative ideas to appeal to the electorate. Their instincts are defensiveness and moderation…leading to capitulation and weakness. The new generation understands the following:
“The Republican brand is not selling very well,” said Christine Todd Whitman, a former New Jersey governor, Bush Cabinet member and 2004 Ranger. “There are a lot of frustrated people. They are not seeing anybody who has sent them over the top.”
Now is not the time for defensiveness. It is the time to acknowledge that progressive ideas are in vogue, and to pursue them without apology and without fear.
None of our presidential candidates are, or will do that. Focus elsewhere. Focus on the next generation.
