Good Stuff on Powerline

Here's a quote. Emphasis on the last sentance.

Red-state America - inland, suburban and working-class - represents the future of the US, not the expensive, class-stratified coastal cities like New York, Boston and San Francisco. Conservatives, a minority among American voters, have managed to put together a majority coalition because they have learned to speak the populist language of the vast region between the Appalachians and the Rockies. Liberals can do so as well - but only if they stop sneering at the people they aspire to lead.

I got into it again with my sister today on the way home from Dim Sum...she asked me in a condescending tone: Who did you vote for?

Simply because I'm not a Bush-basher or Bush hater, she thinks me immediately suspect of being, gasp, a conservative or worse, a Republican. I told her: I voted for Kerry, but I don't hate Bush and I think the Democrats are idiots because they can't get it out of their head that Bush isn't the problem with the world. The reason the Dems lost is because they cannot articulate a strategy on how to deal with Islamic Fascism - that their only strategy is saying, "Bush is doing it wrong."

My mom chirps in: Iraq is going to be just like Vietnam...

I respond: Ok, you two brainiacs - offer up one good suggestion about how we make the Middle East more friendly.

My sister: Well, Bush certainly isn't helping...

Me: That's my point! You can't think outside of what Bush is doing - just make one decent suggestion...

Sister: We shouldn't be so one sided on Israel.

Fair enough.