Bob Herbert asks a simple question:

The question that I would like answered is why anyone listens to this crowd anymore. G.O.P. policies have been an absolute backbreaker for the middle class. (Forget the poor. Nobody talks about them anymore, not even the Democrats.) The G.O.P. has successfully engineered a wholesale redistribution of wealth to those already at the top of the income ladder and then, in a remarkable display of chutzpah, dared anyone to talk about class warfare.

I would hazard that the reason Republicans are still listened to by the press (presumably the audience Herbert is asking about, as it’s pretty clear the public doesn’t buy their bunk any more) is that the GOP is committed to their busted ideas. They always push tax cuts – they have conviction. Put that up against Democrats who, for example, in the space of 48 hours were arguing vociferously on TV in defense of the inclusion of stimulus spending on birth control to the President “begging” congressional leaders to remove the money from the bill. Between people that re fairly convinced that their ideas are right and a crowd that moves with the political winds, the GOP’s ideas will always sound credible.

If Democrats can’t find courage to stand by their convictions (presuming they have convictions in the first place), they will continue to lose the ideological battle on the economy, taxation, and how government can make peoples’ lives better. The victims in this batttle will not necessarily be Democratic elected official who may be forced into early retirement through elections. Rather the real victims are  poor, working, and middle class Americans.