Dwindling Democrats
These are hard and emotional times for Arkansas Democrats. They are fighting for their political lives.
Theyre not going against the grain; theyre trying to climb against an avalanche, one by which utter disdain for Barack Obama crashes hard on top of their heads.
Arkansas Republicans tried for decades to build their party in Arkansas. And now Obama has done it for them in four years, from 2010 until now.
Yet Arkansas Democrats nobly trudge onward, which is not to say upward.
They always have Bill Clinton. But hes getting a tad shop-worn, coming around weekly for the same visual presentation and message. A world statesman doing his politicking in a global context cant quite preach fire and brimstone the way Clinton used to preach it against Frank White.
At this stage of life, Clinton on the Arkansas campaign trail is a rarefied figure trying to impose himself on a pedestrian game.
Beyond that, Clinton tends to remind independent voters that they liked him and the state of affairs when he was president, but that they certainly dont like the guy in office now or the state of affairs currently.
A leading Arkansas Democrat told me over the phone the other day that the future of the Arkansas Democratic Party was well, in my hands, he said.
He said that if if I kept writing that the Democrats were in big trouble, likely to lose, then it would sap the vital energy the party needs for its best shot, which is to drive an unprecedented midterm turnout of Democratic voters.
He said that a U.S. Sen. Tom Cotton and a Gov. Asa Hutchinson would be my fault.
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Dwindling Democrats