Rocket Man, it’s not just the Democrats in the House

who appear to have gone mad. Daniel Henninger of the Wall Street Journal finds evidence of madness among the contenders for the Democratic presidential nomination. But the more profound point of the column is about the underlying nature of the Democratic Party in the 21st century and its relation to groups like the NAACP, before which some (but not all) of the contenders recently appeared.
Accordingly to Henninger, “the Democratic Party, as understood by most people who think of themselves as Democrats, no longer exists. It has evolved into the political version of a shell corporation. Money flows in and out of something called ‘the Democratic Party,’ but most of the politicking is now done by literally dozens of largely independent political groups, of which the NAACP is but one. In fact, left-of-center politics has become one of the most crowded, Darwinian marketplaces in America, and within that market, the NAACP’s share-price has fallen. . . .The Democratic Party now resembles a vast hospital nursery, with each colicky baby lying in a separate crib screaming for attention–right now, for me. And if a Joe Lieberman or Dick Gephardt doesn’t run right over and pour political formula down their throats, they’ll keep right on screaming.”
Henninger recognizes that the Dems do have a common bond — “contempt for the person of George W. Bush.” He concludes, however, that “Democrats are going to need something more than the pleasures of odium to win in 2004. They’re going to need to find a better way to communicate–with each other.”
Courtesy of Real Clear Politics.

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