by Patrick J. Buchanan
The huge Democratic turnout in the Iowa Caucuses, over twice that of the GOP, and the stampede by independents to vote in the Democratic precincts, suggests that Iowa, a swing state carried by President Bush in 2004, may be lost irretrievably to the GOP in 2008.
Why is Iowa walking away from the GOP? Why did Barack Obama win almost as many votes as all the Republicans put together?
First, Iraq. Parties that march nations into what the people come to see as unnecessary or unwinnable wars face the inevitable consequences.
Truman found that out when he was trounced by Estes Kefauver in New Hampshire in 1952. Lyndon Johnson found that out when Sen. Gene McCarthy captured 42 percent of the vote in New Hampshire in 1968 and was about to humiliate LBJ in Wisconsin. LBJ stood down, before the country threw him down. Richard Nixon took the helm.
The GOP lost Iowa because of its persistent failure to recognize and its refusal to address the anxiety and insecurity of the middle class.
George H.W. Bush’s failing in 1992 is the failing of son George W. Bush. With the sole exception of Mike Huckabee, the GOP seems unable to comprehend how throwing U.S. workers into Darwinian competition with foreigners earning one-fifth or one-tenth their wages impacts the Reagan Democrats now deserting the GOP. A party that used to admonish one and all, “There is no free lunch,” cannot see that free trade is no free lunch.............
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