THe Democrats Need to engage their Inner Andrew Jackson!!

I was glad that From Burke to Kirk and Beyond... just stopped by and made in a comment in one of my LSU posts. He is both a Alabama and Vanderbilt fan but he is still oddly sane and informative. By the way LSU and BAMA just finished playing one heck of series in Baseball this afternoon where each team played their hearts out for three nights. MORE ON THAT TOMORROW.

Anyway Burke's posts are always so interesting and I had not visited his blog in a few days. He has been quite busy and has a number of great posts since I last checked in. GO be sure to check his blog out. I was very struck by two post he did.

The first is From U.S. News & World Report...Old Hickory Lives! . I think he really hits on something there. If Democrats want to win they need to embrace their INNER Andrew Jackson. That is start thinking about what Burke is talking about. Just having an annual Jefferson/Jackson dinner does not cut it.

The second one I liked is Third parties and the law of unintended consequences. Again he brings up some inconvenient facts. History has a way of repeating itself!!

I am not a big third party stand. I am one of those uncool people that likes the two party system and likes being a Republican. When I say I like being a Republican I mean it. I don't put endless qualifiers that so many people seem obliged to add on. Such as" I am not a Republican but a Conservative" or "I am a Republican BUT (fill in the blank). Do I agree with everything the Party has to say? Of course not. However I find agreeing with 70 to 80 percent a pretty good fit and don't feel compelled in apologizing for that being the outlet in which I engage Civic involvement.

I think third parties fail partly because the American system is not set up for it. Also that as much as Americans say in polls they want a Third party in reality they do not.

Often one hears that we need a Third Party so someone will
(1) Represent "Real Americans"

or/and

(2) To get things moving again. That is enough Partisanship -if we just had a third party that represented what most Americans want we would be in Nirvana

The problem is that I notice a pretty consistent pattern here as a lot of folks that say the above. That is they start off with one of both of the above viewpoints. However before you know it they are excluding people left and right from being in their party. I see this on the Republican side all the time. Heck we see it all the time on the net as to both liberals and democrats and Conservatives and Republicans. How many Conservative Forums(such as the Free Republic) have had numerous purges because they were not authentic "conservatives" or authentic "republicans". I should note (and this is not just pick on Free Republic) but many posters there are threatening to go third party all the time.

The problem becomes evident. How are you going to get things done is one demands PURITY PURITY PURITY. I think the Internet has created this delusion even more. Now you can link to all the blogs that agree with you, listen via the net to radio stations that agree with you, visit forums where hundreds and maybe thousands are agreeing with you. At some point one comes to the belief that my gosh what my political friends think and what I think must be believed by millions!! Then it becomes the majority must believe this way.

Americans want compromise. They want also not to have to deal with politics all the time. That might not be a good thing. However, I have huge doubts if it is in the American Psyche to put up and engage four of five parties when they have enough trouble doing it with two.