The fate of both parties hangs mostly on the public's verdict about Republican ideas.

Isn't that a bit obvious when Democrats don't have any power (except filibuster)?

Otherwise, I disagree when government spending is out of control and the red ink is running like a river--partly thanks to the prescription drug benefit.

Bioethics, gay marriage, internationalization of the US...those are all issues where the Right is watching the sand wash out from under its feet.

Politically the Republican Party may be strong, but the triangulation necessary to make it so has weakened it ideologically.

Spot on point by Nicholas.

Governing makes one more prone to ideological flexibility. The downside is that Bush has chosen the only cohesive "Republican" tenets to be flexible about---e.g. smaller government and less federal intrusion in people's lives.

I'd much rather see flexibility on socially conservative issues (though I'm a "social conservative" myself) than see gov't bloat to unprecedented levels.

The Republican Party is growing gov't at the expense of the Party coalition.

Of course the GOP is the House of Ideas.

Haven't you ever seen Ted Stevens wear his Incredible Hulk Tie on the Senate floor?

http://alaskalegislature.com/stories
/062203/stevens.shtml

I'll continue with my annoying habit of agreeing with Hobgoblin in a "Yes, but--" kind of way. Out-of-control spending is one of the things I dislike most about this administration, and seeing it reined in will be a major factor in deciding my vote in 2008. But Bush has at least suggested a model for reducing the size of federal government (the "ownership society"), which the Democrats have fought every step of the way. The dispute over PRAs is typical.

Democrats have no credibility whatsoever on this issue. Every proposal they've put forth entails the expansion of government. In 1996 Clinton reformed welfare and signed a Republican balanced budget virtually at gunpoint, and 95% of the 300,000 jobs he and Gore cut from the federal workforce came out of defense and the military.

And Nicholas, the idea that "the sand is washing out from under the Republicans' feet" on bioethics is pretty dubious; on gay marriage, it's flat-out preposterous. I probably agree with you on those issues, but there's no way I can put that spin on the political climate.

That the Democrats have few ideas is obvious. But if the Republican ideas are BAD ideas, then Dem passivity just might work.

A clear majority believe the USA is going in the wrong direction with the domestic policies of Bush and his supply side, open borders, globalization cohorts.

There is a gathering unease even within the Republican base that massive deficits, uncontrolled spending, a declining dollar, along with huge tax cuts mostly benefiting the well to do ..............

Simply isn't working out so good.........

I think by 2008 the country will once again be ready for a Centrist Democrat with reasonable ideas over a Republican Congress and Prez candidate that promises "8 more years of Bush policies"

"I think by 2008 the country will once again be ready for a Centrist Democrat with reasonable ideas over a Republican Congress and Prez candidate that promises "8 more years of Bush policies""

You are assuming that one can get nominated.

One of the more interesting comments from the Reagan era is the fallout from spending so much money on defense is there wasn't enough left over for the programs that need to be put to rest. Maybe, Bush took a page from government Reaganomics.

"but whether to cut the Medicaid program that provides the central strand in our society's safety net."

If by "central strand in our society's safty net" you mean "billion dollar money hole which is dragging our government deeper down the crapper" I guess you are right.

"country will once again be ready for a Centrist Democrat"

Is this the 43% of the country that was ready for a Centrist Democrat in 1992? Or is it the 49% in 1996? (Funny how a sitting president with a good economy couldn't even muster a simple majority of the voters).

This is nothing new. Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan (D-NY) said the following on "This Week with David Brinkley" back in Dec of 1994:

"In the 70's the Republicans became the party of ideas. The Democrats had pretty much stopped thinking."
David Brinkley: "You're a Democrat. Your party has stopped thinking, you say. What are they doing if they've not thinking?"
Moynihan: "They're repeating what somebody thought three generations ago."