Americans Away From Home

"Democrats are hung up on ideas of fairness and equity."  Mike Murphy, a Republican strategist, offered this view on "Meet The Press." 

It's no surprise that philosophical differences between the parties emerge during primary season.  What is surprising is how closely methods of choosing Presidential candidates mirror what many see as the major difference between Democrats and Republicans.

While both parties tend to choose their Presidential nominee well before their respective party conventions, each party appears to make its choice in a way that mirrors its own Weltanschauung. 

“Democrats, being the nice liberals they are, grade on a curve,” Murphy said. “They give you delegates for coming in second.”

Republicans choose differently, according to Murphy.  "Republicans, being mean social Darwinists, we tend to punish the second-place guy with a lot of winner-take-all primaries.” (NY Times article here).

Will seeking "fairness and equity" now go the route of attempts to be insulting such as "card-carrying Liberal" and "do-gooder"?

It sounds as if "fairness and equity" may be the next honorees to enter the hallowed halls of Republican contempt, where one can find such banished concepts as "card-carrying Liberal" and "Reality Based Community" (i.e., people who have the gall to base their views on facts, unlike Republicans, whom a senior aide to President Bush confessed, create their own reality).

Murphy accusing Democrats of being hung up on fairness hardly sounds like an insult.  But wait!  It ain't over till the Swift Boat Lady sings.

Carole