Another Democrat Meets Reality

Kevin at Smallest Minority - who should be on your "daily reads" list, if he isn't already - links to this column written by a disheartened Democrat who seems to have a firm grasp on the reality behind the downfall of John Kerry and his party, and isn't afraid to admit it.

Speaking as someone who recently threw away a Carhartt jacket, because it actually wore out after 10+ years, I found this bit particularly poignant:

And as the Democratic Party hierarchy grew increasingly bicoastal intellectual elite, more and more of the low- and middle-class Joes joined the exodus, not out of bigotry but because they weren't stupid: They may not have had graduate degrees, but they knew when they were being condescended to.

When John Kerry went bird hunting in a Carhartt jacket that still had the folds from the box in it and held his shotgun like a yachtsman's telescope, he synthesized and symbolized the state of the Democratic Party today:

The elitist, stooping to offer a limp handshake to the Great Unwashed.

Yet there are those on the left who still wonder why such a "positive" image failed to win over the hearts and minds of the American Midwest. How often have you heard the Democrats explain their candidate's defeat as a result of their failure to get their message to the people? This couldn't be further from reality. Not only did the message reach the masses, but as soon as it hit the ground it spread like wildfire through a wheat field.