Zell's Angels

Novak on Zell Miller and the Dems This is what I mean:

That was the exact point on which the great tradition of the Democratic party was destroyed from within. It was destroyed by leading Democrats of the left and by the educated class into whose hands the party's leadership increasingly fell. It became the new party of the rich and the movie-actor/professor/journalist axis, claiming to speak for the poor: the frauds. ... Zell Miller nailed the difference that has overtaken the Democratic party between then and now, and as far as I can see, most of the Democrats in the press (which means nine-tenths of the major media) don't dare to see what Zell sees. They are mistaken, however, if they don't see that the 1980s "Reagan Democrat" phenomenon is in full bloom again. Think not only Ron Silver the actor, but also Ed Koch the Mayor, and a swelling tide of Democrats in Ohio and Pennsylvania, in heavily Democratic districts, coming out to cheer for a president who is leading the most crucial fight of this and the next 50 years.

George Bush is going to win a surprising share of Democratic votes this year. The firemen's and policemen's vote. The Nascar vote. The motorcycle vote. All of them, Zell's Angels.

This is what I mean when I complain about the Democrats in the U.S. not fulfilling the job of an opposition party - to be a reasonable, responsible government in waiting. To be a means by which a responsible voter can hold a government that he disagrees with accountable. To my mind, there is no alternative to Bush in this falls election, and that is not a good thing. Kerry is blatantly not up to the job. In Canada, prior to the Alliance - Tory merger, the Tories played the same role; same s***, different pile, as it were.