Actually, this does have relevance outside your borders, because many of the issues (such as slick vs. political content) are rather generic.
Naturally, I can only draw comparisons between your country and mine, but what is (if you believe her) happening to the democrats seems to be a failing of the system that is occurring elsewhere in the world. Here too there is the feel that the left-wing party is 'pandering' to minority groups, and is out of touch with what some have termed 'the common man'. There is also the fear that they are prioritising public relations ahead of social achievment (again, see BJ Clinton
).
It seems that what happens is one party lurches to an extreme, appealing to it's most hardcore members, while the party that can be more controlled and grab the centre ground, wins. In response, the losing party lurches even
more to an extreme position, in a desperate attempt to win
all the minority votes, instead of
most of the common vote. It's interesting to see that some people think this is what is happening in the USA too.
Of course, in the UK we do have the left-wing government (well, centre-left), because it is our right-wingers who have become sundered into extremists and centre-leftists. Independents are doing better in the polls than they have at any time in my admittedly short memory - a thing which seems to be reflected in part by some of the people posting here.
However, I don't think that the win-at-all-costs mindset is confined solely to the Democrats. I just think they go about it in different ways. The Democrats by lurching wildly from side to side like a drunk butterfly, the Republicans by putting forward GWB, a man who has been described in the british press as everything from 'a well-meaning man of christian values' to 'a frightningly ignorant simpleton'. I think it just happens that GWB appeals so much more to middle america that the 'he's-a-nice-guy' line is rubbing off on the Republicans. I think they are every bit as win-at-all-costs as the Demorats. They just have gone about it in a less obvious manner.
There ya go, a semi-serious post made at 7:47 am, just as I'm about to go to bed
Night! [img]smile.gif[/img]