Democratic Party Self Destructs

To the Editor: Once upon a time there were a lot of union guys in the Democrat party. They even set the tone. They knew that elections were not philosophy seminars at Dartmouth, but brawls in which a limited number of slogans were shouted to rally the faithful. If such a politician were asked how he would react if his wife were raped, he'd shout "I'd kill the bastard!" They'd not fret about how "bastards" might feel hearing this word. And they'd not natter on about rape statistics, as the effete Dukakis did. Or cry about insults to his wife as the effete Muskie once did. The Republicans won the last election by finding kernels of the truth as they saw it, shooting out forceful sound bytes, i.e., talking points, and getting every Republican in the universe repeating them until they became conventional wisdom, easily recalled and repeated. Howard Dean understands this technique and began to implement it when he said De Lay was probably going to jail.